B.O.A.T - Brownest of All Time

Chapter 33

"Hello everyone! I want to share a very special message with you guys today. But before I do that, I would like to tell you the story of a child, who always stood out in any crowd because of a feature that she despised about herself. A child who cried herself to sleep most nights, asking God to break her irreversible curse.

This story revolves around a sensitive issue and is quite negative. Some of you — or perhaps most of you would not be able to relate to it. You might even think that I am just making the whole thing up. But trust me, it's a true story. And please, please, don't shut your ears. Listen to what I say carefully, for it's a real social issue that deserves our attention.

So, the story dates back some twenty plus years. A very cheerful, six-year old child was playing with her sister at a family gathering, when a relative walked up to them and addressed her sister as "vellakaari", a Tamil term that translates to 'white woman'. While the little girl smiled and waited for her turn to be called the same, the relative did not do it. She simply walked away, leaving the little girl disappointed.

Now, this child who did not understand why the relative treated her differently, started looking for answers by comparing herself to the sister. Oh and that was the moment she realized, though they were from the same family, they had very different skin tones! And for the first time, the thought that being fair-skinned means you get attention while being dark-skinned means you get ignored, crept into her mind.

That night after going home, she questioned her mother about it, looking for clarifications. But her mother for some reason avoided the conversation, which made her feel perhaps it was a shameful topic that should not to be addressed. However, just before going to bed, she raised her hands and prayed to God, asking Him to make her skin tone lighter like that of her sister's.

Years passed and the little girl's prayers did not stop. Neither did God change anything about her color. The more she heard people talk about skin tones, the more she grew frustrated with the way she looked.

She soon realized the preference for fair skin and discrimination was not just something that happened within the family circle but at school too. One of her classmates so randomly told her one day, "you are very black noh." The remark broke her heart but she could not do anything about it.

Even the teachers at school paid extra attention to the fair-skinned girls in her class and ignored her most of the time, until she started excelling in her studies. With her impressive academic performance, she was able to get a few words of praise, but her longing for lighter skin never seemed to end.

She often daydreamed of God responding to her prayers by giving her the option of either choosing intelligence or lighter skin tone to live with for the rest of her life, and in her fantasy she always chose the latter. But in reality, God never gave her a chance to repair this one thing that she despised about herself!

As a teenager, things only got worse. While all her lighter-skinned classmates and even her sister drew a lot of attention from the boys in town, she received none. She soon started believing perhaps fair meant beautiful and dark meant ugly, because after all, even the popular advertisement that she watched on TV said "fair & lovely" and never "dark & lovely".

In an attempt to change things herself, she started using all sorts of fairness creams recommended by her relatives, and even searched on the internet for home remedies for fair skin. But unfortunately, none of it seemed to work on her. Her skin was dark as ever. In fact, it only got darker with time, and wherever she went, she was the darkest person in a group.

She tried to hide her inferiority complex and wanted to pretend like everything was fine with her, but the society never let her do it. Every time she went out with her family, people gasped and told her mother or sister, "Can't believe she is related to you. She is very dark noh."