Fair - Unfair

The Baliga men are born liars and become compulsive liars as they hit adolescence. Not really harmful, their lies are little, just for the heck of it I guess. They are also grand exaggerators. When they narrate a story to you, you should know what to filter out and what not to. I've learnt that the hard way. One more thing about the Baliga men is that they are fair-skinned. One of the family traditions, I could not carry forward. "The black sheep of the family" as the cliche stands.

The Baligas' pride themselves on how fair they are (actually it is a very South Canara Konkani thing). Well, the pride stops with one glance at me. My darkness has been an area of concern for my grandparents almost since the second I was born. Large amounts of "Fair & Lovely" were applied on my countenance by my grandmom. Getting permission from her to play cricket against the neighbouring building team in the afternoons used to be a major ordeal. Some of my relatives also slyly mention the new "Fair & handsome" in their conversations, not leaving much to be deciphered.

She was not the only one on "Mission Whitewash Adi". My babysitting ayaah found it quite unbelievable that my dad and mum were so fair and I wasn't. She had ideas of bathing me in milk. Thankfully, I left the creche before her fantasies materialised.

I have also been a victim of constant racial abuse. "Nigga", "Charcoal", "Kaliga". One of my cousin wouldn't talk to me because I was dark! Well, I obviously wasn't a favourite with my grandparents. Few of the girls have also mentioned how disappointing it was that I am dark, considering my gene pool is rather rich in this aspect.

Well, this is funny because I'm a guy. Prospective brides of some of my uncles and cousins have been straight away rejected because they were a shade or two darker. With the fairness cream one of the major drivers of the cosmetics industry, it doesn't seem soon that people are going to get rid of their prejudices.