Why Fair is Still Lovely and Handsome???

Omila Thounaojam *

The level of mental colonization happened to such a great extent that the colonized subject still lives with a kind of "hangover mentality". So much so that Fair & Lovely is supplemented at present with Fair & Handsome and many more such products.

Fair and lovely has become a household name. This brand and product is almost synonymous to an absent yet present member of a family who has gone out of home but successfully has retained its importance in the family.

The presence of a dominant sort is what Fair and Lovely is all about. It's not just a cosmetic that sales fast but is equated to a valid item that promises to show the magic of Glow.

Fair and Lovely twice a day and after seven weeks, see the beauty of whiteness in your skin is what the product entails within itself. But the significant point here is "What" exactly or "How" frankly can we define "Beauty" in today's social milieu.

Our country has recently celebrated its 50th years of Independence with great pomp and show. As a proud nation that has successfully coped up with the residual poisonous effects of the years of being under colonial regime, we thought we've progressed.

That we've become a developed nation and that we've to a large extent "decolonized" our minds. Sadly we have this easy impression about ourselves that we've moved on but the real thing is "Have We?"

No one can deny the fact that with the coming of the colonial rule in India, there also emerged a kind of Cultural Revolution.

The notion of "white" or "fair" specifically became the standard to define everything that is associated with a kind of dominant position in the society.

The level of mental colonization happened to such a great extent that the colonized subject still lives with a kind of "hangover mentality". So much so that Fair and Lovely is supplemented at present with Fair and Handsome and many more such products.

What does this ultimately signify? No one can imagine actually but at the core of such a paralyzing commercial culture lays the truth that we still live with the phantom of a colonized psyche.

Many women blindly believe that certain product could make them beautiful. They unquestioningly accept that they are born ugly just because of the fact that they supposedly don't have a "Fair" skin.

The urgent need for a "White Mask" makes them plunge into a kind of consumerist world culture that extorts hard-earn money by selling a false promise of beautification.

Nowadays one could see that even men- folk has also started taking active part in such a kind of sad scenario whereby, being Fair and Handsome is the most important standard for them to feel manly.

It's the postcolonial time people…Can't you see? It's high time that we abandon trends that call for blind believes.

The best should be allowed to flower and the signs and symbols of an imprisoned-mind should be demolished so that we live free and think free at the same time in the real sense of the word.