The Colour Comp

Being the first generation Desi Australian teenager was a testing time. It's not an experience for the faint hearted. I have survived the wars and lived to write the 'colour' tales.

There was always competition between the teenage girls from which school they attended, what they wore, who had what and how. Most of the things related to materialist things like, clothing, records, shoes and then the size of the parents house and type of car. But there was one competition that out did that rest. If a person had a fair complexion, he/she was somehow 'better' and would be an 'automatic' winner. There would be converstions like, 'but it's ok for her she's fair' or 'she's so white'!

It was a very desi trait to judge a person by what they wear and the dismiss the people who were not 'worthy'. In the desi wives world, I've watched women size up a person to see if she's 'their' type and run their analysis of the newbee's class, education and family. One of the latest topics that keeps rearing it's ugly head, is a person's skin colour. I thought I had left all of this behind in high school! While the western world risks cancer from sun bathing, in the desi world women are coating themselves in 'Fair and lovely' face cream to whiten up! Yes, like in the Hindi films, all the heroines seem to be white! The most popular and desireables on tv, film or modelling are western looking and well, white.

We have a new member that's migrated, who comes from the darker majority of the sub-continent. The Newbee would be at parties working the room,  trying hard to create a place in the Desi Wives World, placing herself in the middle of the action, not knowing, that the same women were commenting behind her back.

It's a behaviour that's at odds with our upbringing. In school we learn to tolerate and believe in equality. But when people openly ridicule the skin colour of others, I want to run away from all of them and hide under a rock! I've tried in vain to understand their reasons for this and the only conclusion I've come up with is that they need a 'hobby' and take up a game of tennis?