This Mumbai Mom’s Poem Will Make You Rethink Society’s Obsession With Fair Skin

India is a country where an obsession with fair skin runs deep. From a booming multi-billion dollar skin lightening industry to classified ads touting the marriageability of an “MBA graduate with fair complexion”, the signs of skin-colour based social discrimination are everywhere.

“Would you like to do something to make your skin fairer” remains a common refrain in beauty parlours across the country. Even sentiments like, “She got lucky someone married her despite her (dark) complexion” are still whispered in India of 2018.

The good news is that India’s younger generation has started to push back. In 2016, ‘Parched’ actress Tannishtha Chatterjee hit out at the ‘dark skin’ slurs she received on a TV show in a strongly-worded Facebook post. In July 2017, 18-year-old Aranya Johar’s powerful spoken-word poem, Brown Girl’s Guide to Beauty, on YouTube went viral, reaching 1.5 million viewers around the world in its first day alone.

More recently, Kali — a soul-stirring poem written by Hema Gopinath Sah, a Mumbai-based blogger-mother — has been going viral on social media.

Sah’s simple yet poignant verses tell the experiences of a dark-skinned woman from her birth to the time she becomes a mother herself, starkly highlighting the societal stereotypes against dark skin.

“I once saw a TV interview of a little girl no more than four. She was asked why another little girl was her best friend, so the girl replied because she is fair. The audience laughed delightedly in understanding. How do we ever change this, lift this prejudice, which is entrenched in our DNA?

I want to claim the word ‘Fair’ back. I want it to only mean the opposite of unfair. It should only stand for what it was intended- justice, equality, equitability,” Sah told the Indian Express.

The poem was released with a captivating picture of a dark-skinned girl—an image which immediately grabbed the attention of all.

So, who is the girl in the picture, and what pushed Hema to write this poem?

“Cathrin, was to a large extent, my inspiration for the poem. We became friends thanks to Facebook. Every now and then, whenever she would post pictures on her wall, you would see colourist, discriminatory messages and honestly it was depressing,” says Sah in a conversation with The Better India.

As she started thinking about it more she realised that it was a prevalent problem in society. Phrases such as “black but beautiful” and “dusky beauty” made her question why people felt the need to justify beauty when it did not come from a fair person.

While Cathrin may have been the inspiration, the words are her own. They come from her own experiences, and the hurdles she has had to overcome in life.

“Everything I write about in the poem stem from my personal experiences. It is literally my life told through the colour-coded eyes of the society I live in, and these are just a few of the experiences. I grew up knowing that I would never be considered good-looking, that I’d have to study and become smart if I had to make something of myself,” she explains.

While Sah knew that her poem would definitely strike a chord among some people, she wasn’t surprised when the poem hit 50 shares. However, when the numbers started picking up, and over 5000 people shared it, she knew that the poem had thrived beyond her wildest imaginations!

“It was completely unexpected and in many ways saddening to think of how many people grew up feeling like they were lesser people, even in our own country, in our own homes, among our own family members,” she says.

She has received hundreds of emails from people around the world—India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to South Africa, Uganda, and even the UK! However, it was a response from a fair-skinned girl, which took her completely by surprise!

“She wrote to me saying that I may have suffered because of my dark skin, but she was made to feel as though she had no other talent other than her complexion,” she recalls.

She goes on to add, “Another gentleman, whose niece had vitiligo wrote to me saying that melanin was a curious thing. Both the presence and absence of the pigment draw attention and discrimination.”

So, while her words have had a powerful effect, what does she think can be done to ensure that as a society, we progress?

Well, while she may not have all the answers, by her own admission, she does feel one thing very strongly.

“Fairness creams and their advertisements should be banned outright. They are not only peddling colourism; their whole premise rests only on making us feel bad about our skin,” she says.

Here is a verse from her poem, which should definitely make us all re-think our obsessions.