All's Fair that ends Fair

Have you seen the new fairness cream advertisement on the telly? I won't go into specifics (so I don't inadvertently slander anybody) but the ad portrays the use of a fairness metre (*wink*) to help you determine what your current skin tone is and then monitor the changes as you use the product.

There are so many skin care products out there that guarantee you will be fair and beautiful after using them. Such marketing techniques simply play on the skewed mentality of the masses, that 'fair' and 'beautiful' are inseparable synonyms.
In India, for example, most men look for fairer women to marry. If you randomly picked a marriage ad from any popular matchmaking website, you'd most probably find that the groom-to-be is asking for someone 'fair and [insert any other positive adjective here]'

How fair is that? Not fair at all (sorry for the pun, but it is very much intended *snicker*).

Did you know that:

(a) your skin colour is predominantly dependent on your genes?
(b) your skin colour is not greatly determined by environmental factors?
(c) most fairness creams contain bleaching agents and so this is just a temporary, artificial way of looking fair?

When I go to the beach, I tan and then, admittedly, I complain. I don't like being tanned (mainly because I'm not naturally fair-skinned). But that doesn't mean that I want to be fairer than I was ever meant to be. I very much like my skin colour, thank you!

Of course, you may argue that just like I don't like to be tanned, there may be others who do not particularly enjoy being dark all the time. I ask you then: why change the skin colour that Nature has endowed you with?
There are many beautiful people out there who have dark skin. Just as there are many beautiful people out there who are fair skinned. And so many with skin tones in between!

We may look different from each other (except rare random people, identical twins, triplets, quadruplets...you get the drift) but in God's eyes, we are all the same...equal.

I don't want to preach but I sincerely believe that the world would be a better place if people just accepted their own uniqueness and that of others. If we do just this much, there will be no more racism, no more pining for a better skin colour, no more putting others down for their looks and accents. What a different, more beautiful world that would be!

Source: WareSeeker.com

Obviously, there are certain things we can and possibly should control: split ends (one might argue that Nature intended our hair to split at the ends), our health (I was destined to get Diabetes; its in my genes) and I-cannot-really-think-of-more-right-now-so-lets-just-end-the-list-and-perhaps-this-post-as-well =)


Excuse me as I try to get rid of some very unnatural blackheads.

Till next time,

Jo

A Dark Day in Mumbai

Sometimes, when an advert is going on during Shark or C.S.I., I tend to switch to a news channel, not really expecting to see anything significant; just some more on the ongoing financial crisis.

So on the 26th of November, 2008, when I saw on NDTV 24x7 that some terrorists had attacked Mumbai, I didn't think for a minute that it would last about 60 hours and that more than 100 innocent people would lose their lives.

'It's another one of those home grown blasts' I thought with disgust. And then slowly it started dawning on me that this time it was different. The terrorists were using guns and hand grenades and they were holding people hostage at five- or seven-star hotels and other places. It was not one of those throw a bomb-and-run cases; this time there were staying.
There were so many aspects that were different from previous terror attacks that it took me a while to process the whole thing! Guns? Hostages? At the Taj???

The whole thing seemed unreal. How did those terrorists get inside the Taj and the Oberoi-Trident with those explosives and guns? How could all this happen?

Over the next two days, my family and I watched with horror hoping that the police, army and NSG would stop the terrorists and save the hostages. Finally, on the 29th of November, it all ended.
But did it really end? Not really. Even now Indians are afraid, angry and insecure.
The worst part is that some terrorists are still on the loose in Mumbai! How can any normal human being sleep peacefully at night knowing that terrorists are still around and that they could start firing anywhere again- maybe this time at someone's workplace or a school?

What can India do now? Well, it's really simple in theory: stop wasting time with stupid, childish political games and start taking action. Today, all I see in the news is how this politician said something inappropriate and how that one behaved erratically.

I just hope that the brave souls who put their lives in danger for our safety didn't do so in vain and that something will be done soon! How much longer can we just sit back and complain? Not too long, certainly. This is War now. A War against Terrorism. No one has the right to instil fear in our hearts! And we must not allow it.

Enough is enough!

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Please pray for all the innocent people who lost their lives during this heinous terror attack.

May their souls rest in peace.

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Everything you need to know about the terror attacks in Mumbai can be found here (source: NDTV).