About the complexion of colour...
This 'n' that
By Renee Ranchan

THE whole of this week I have been watching chunks of stuff on television. No, I have neither become a couch potato nor a TV addict, nor have I been bundled up in bed with a cold; hot soup and the tele-remote in hand.... It is just that I am holidaying at home. A couple of times, I did make the effort to venture out, catch up with old friends but the weather was the main deterrent. It is the end of March and I could swear it already feels like May.

Summer this year, climatologists say, is going to be worse than last year. Remember the EI Nino effect? So what else could I do but plant myself in front of the idiot box. (I, at last, understand why they call it so...) and watch whatever was on. And you know what, I got hooked.

No, don’t look surprised. I know most of the serials don’t deserve an iota of attention. It was the commercials, the advertisements that caught my attention. I would go out to run some errand or the other when the serial resumed after the commercial break. My domestic help wanted to know, why I suddenly felt the express need to use the phone or head for the bathroom when it was ‘real viewing’ time. I told him that the tele was on basically to watch advertisements. (Wish you could have seen the look on his face).

The commercials are really fascinating. Try switching on the tube with the sole purpose of watching ads... you would know what I mean. And may be, we could exchange notes as well. For now though, shall we talk about a couple of advertisements?

Fairness creams, I did know they have hit shop shelves in a big way — all big brand names are coming up with an all-for-fairness creams, lotions. To be gora-chitta has always been high on our collective agenda ... but are we not going too far? A fairness cream marketed itself by announcing in a hot chocolatey voice, ‘A beautiful face without fair skin is like life without a telephone! Can you believe that? I do hope such an advertisement does not exist. I have not seen this ad, but someone I know told me about it. If in actuality there is such a jingle then I am quite positive teenagers, adolescents must be ‘hooked’ on this cream... such a mantra would obviously catch their attention.

To cruise away from the world of visuals: scan the matrimonial pages of any paper. Yes, the prospective bride has to be fair, and the fairer the better... that is an enduring requirement. That reminds me, a cousin has been having a tough time finding a bride... he wants an ‘extra fair’ life partner and nobody seems to fit the bill. Hmm, may be he should migrate to some Scandinavian country... he’ll have better luck there, unless of course, he is rejected on account of his hue!

To move on... it was not all ‘home holidaying’. One afternoon, I found myself in a library. Actually my domestic help decided to vacuum the carpet, and that left me with no option but to go out of the house for a while. At the reading room, Ilaid my hands on a disturbing article in The New York Times. The write-up ‘Staring at Hatred!’ in a nutshell stated:

A 49-year-old Black man was chained to a truck and dragged along a country road in Texas by a 24-year-old White-supremist. What was the Black man’s crime? He was a Black. Case number two: A 21-year-old college student was tied to a fence, beaten in the head with a .357 magnum, tortured with cigarettes, taunted as he wept for his life and finally left alone to die in near freezing temperature. His offence?

He was not White. Some more because-of-the-wrong-colour-of-your-skin crimes: A 21-year-old Black Marine was attacked by a group of Whites armed with brass knuckles. As many as 30 men joined in the assault.... And last autumn two young men in Texas were out on a wipe-out-Blacks mission.

They spent an entire day on the search... the day went by without them spotting a single Black person. Finally they decided to ‘settle’ for the ‘next best option’ , a dark-haired woman with mixed-race looks. They murdered the lady after using her for ‘target practice’. The murderers were reported to have burst out laughing when she died.... And you know what, Miss Robinson, the victim, was in fact a White. Is this really the America you hear so much about? A country which takes pride in its ‘melting pot’ status, its ‘salad bowl’ character? And if 21st century is just a touch away, how is it that we are still living in the dark, Dark Ages? Is colour the cause of hate crimes?

There is still more to colour in...like the story of two sisters. One sister had a wheatish hue, the other was milky white. Everyone favoured the fair one though the dark one was the kinder, better and even prettier (if one wants to take into account physical appearance) of the two!

The dark one, however, was consigned to a scrap-heap, metaphorically speaking. Even the mother had a softer spot for her gori-chitti beti... The solution? When have we ever had ready-made remedies? Colour-blindness, perhaps... it could lessen the toxicity of this situation or mindset. More suggestions are welcome... .