Pale face.
Let us face it , colour consciousness exists rampantly in our society.
It starts from the time of birth . The first question on every body's lips is 'what is the colour of the baby ? Is it white or black?' [segapppa karuppa?]
Of 5 siblings , 3 of us were born with light skin whilst the other two ,in a darker hue. They had to carry the stigma of being a darky [karauppu] all their lives. I have seen that in most families that take pride in their white skin ,a dark skinned person invariably pops up like the proverbial bad penny in every generation.
When I was studying Law in Law faculty at Delhi my classmates would enquire whether I was a Bengali or a Marathi and when I replied that I was a Tamilian , they were surprised and would invariably comment ''with your fair skin and light eyes ,how can you be a Tamilian . Aern't they all darkies?''I had no reply as most of my growing years was away from T.N.
When I finally landed in Chennai to settle down , I found some substance in their observation ,since most of the population is a shade darker than I am . And I did stick out like a sore thumb. In course of time I have come to know of the degrees of skin tone here--- light brown ,brown , dark brown and black.
I have nothing to cheer about my light skin because up North I have come across Punjabi girls who were white as milk. Their dazzling colour gave me a scare and made me feel so small that I wanted to erase myself like a smudge of chalk. Then I happened to come across some European women. They were so white that I could see the blood coursing in their veins, their hair as shining as if spun from gold, and eyes as blue as the sea.Some had copper coloured hair and others red or brown . Some had green eyes and other's purple !
Nature is truly kind to people belonging to Europe ,painting them with ,enviable gorgeous colours. Those Punjabi girls looked dark and drab besides them!
Our tabulations and scale of colouring between North , South , East ,West and upper and lower caste within our country, is laughable!
From dark brown of Kanyakumari to the light skin of Kashmiri's , we are all the 'brown brigade,' with a liberal sprinkling of dusky skins, in the eyes of exquisitely coloured westerners.
I often console myself at this unfair tarnishing by mother nature with the Red Indians description of early European and English settlers as 'Pale face';that black and brown colour shows vigour whilst white displays an anemic pallor!
PS: The current, charming and dashing coffee brown anchors of CNN outshine their white [pale] counterparts!
It starts from the time of birth . The first question on every body's lips is 'what is the colour of the baby ? Is it white or black?' [segapppa karuppa?]
Of 5 siblings , 3 of us were born with light skin whilst the other two ,in a darker hue. They had to carry the stigma of being a darky [karauppu] all their lives. I have seen that in most families that take pride in their white skin ,a dark skinned person invariably pops up like the proverbial bad penny in every generation.
When I was studying Law in Law faculty at Delhi my classmates would enquire whether I was a Bengali or a Marathi and when I replied that I was a Tamilian , they were surprised and would invariably comment ''with your fair skin and light eyes ,how can you be a Tamilian . Aern't they all darkies?''I had no reply as most of my growing years was away from T.N.
When I finally landed in Chennai to settle down , I found some substance in their observation ,since most of the population is a shade darker than I am . And I did stick out like a sore thumb. In course of time I have come to know of the degrees of skin tone here--- light brown ,brown , dark brown and black.
I have nothing to cheer about my light skin because up North I have come across Punjabi girls who were white as milk. Their dazzling colour gave me a scare and made me feel so small that I wanted to erase myself like a smudge of chalk. Then I happened to come across some European women. They were so white that I could see the blood coursing in their veins, their hair as shining as if spun from gold, and eyes as blue as the sea.Some had copper coloured hair and others red or brown . Some had green eyes and other's purple !
Nature is truly kind to people belonging to Europe ,painting them with ,enviable gorgeous colours. Those Punjabi girls looked dark and drab besides them!
Our tabulations and scale of colouring between North , South , East ,West and upper and lower caste within our country, is laughable!
From dark brown of Kanyakumari to the light skin of Kashmiri's , we are all the 'brown brigade,' with a liberal sprinkling of dusky skins, in the eyes of exquisitely coloured westerners.
I often console myself at this unfair tarnishing by mother nature with the Red Indians description of early European and English settlers as 'Pale face';that black and brown colour shows vigour whilst white displays an anemic pallor!
PS: The current, charming and dashing coffee brown anchors of CNN outshine their white [pale] counterparts!
posted by K.C. Sujata at
5:07 AM
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