A Letter To All The Dark-skinned People...

To all the dark-skinned people,

I felt the need to share my own experience on being dark-skinned myself. And so I write this to you. Life isn't fair to us. The world isn't fair. Fairness is what is fair for the world. In a world where an average human would unknowingly watch fairness cream ads at least a dozen times a day on the TV, we live in the unfortunate side of having dark skin. Is it really our fault that the advertisements show how bad chocolate coloured skin looks on young girls and boys? Is it our fault that they show how their products wash off the "dirty" skin and miraculously reveal the pale white skin underneath? Was it as easy as scrubbing off with some soap and lotion? Then why couldn't I just scrub it off? At the age of seven, I asked my mom why I was being called "Blacky" and she replied, "Whoever called me by that name must have darkness in their eyes. They must really be in a dark place if they feel the need to call a child by that name." Then why did they call me "tar-black"? Why did they call me the "N" word in my school days? There were lots of questions, growing up with the "wrong colour". Many assumed that I belonged to a lower caste, just because I was dark-skinned. Things didn't even seem to make sense at this point. The idea of colour mixing with religion just didn't seem to work. Its like mixing apples and oranges!

Fairness isn't a necessity, but try telling that to the millions of Indians who think fair skin is a must for being beautiful. The idea of anything being white is just so convincing. Even the dark-skinned gods have been painted blue. Different brands of fairness creams (which promote obvious racism but surprisingly nobody seems to mind it anyway) has a trend among youth and even children. Imagine growing up knowing that your skin colour is officially cursed everywhere you go and you can't do anything about it.  Almost everyone around you is subconsciously programmed by the idea of "white is holy". Nobody wants to see a dark-skinned person at all. The world around me was busy scrubbing off the dark in me. I tried everything to fit in ; papayas, potato bleaches, face masks,  literally anything that would stick to my face and reveal "my true beauty". Sometimes my parents would convince me that I'm beautiful in my own way. That facade fades off after a while. I look in the mirror and see a liar staring back at me. Hiding under facemasks and makeup. Mom and dad were supportive, but they always tell such beautiful lies to make you feel great. The public had treated me differently. In my teenage years, I strived so hard to be accepted by all. Of course, there were outbursts and depressive days when my parents tried to support me, but the rest of the world was shoving the truth into my face.

All my life I thought it was my fault that I was ugly. It turned out I wasn't ugly at all. After some self reflection I realised I had some great features; a pointy nose, sharp cheekbones and doll eyes with long lashes; I couldn't exactly find out why people called me ugly. And then it occurred to me; the chocolate brown skin. It took me a while to realise, how horrible the world had treated me just because I was dark-skinned. I put on makeup and pretended I was like the rest of the world. I edited my photos to overcome my "ugliness". This gave me  neither happiness nor satisfaction. Soon people started calling me out on using makeup. They told me how unrecognisable I was with makeup and editing apps and reminded me of how awful I looked in real life. This is when I gave up. At this point, I realized that, no matter what I did to be "beautiful" the world will always find some flaw in me. Since I couldn't wash the dirt off from their eyes, I washed my makeup away. It was easier. And it finally gave me the freedom to be just plain, old, me. That day, I embraced my body, and told her how precious she was to me. Sometimes, this is all you need to know. Take pride in whatever colour you come to this world. There's always room for more flavours in a tasteless world where people have the only option of choosing vanilla. To all the dark-skinned people, you may be as dark as chocolate, but so are you sweet.