Dark and Beautiful

“Would you like to try the new face wash from Nature’s?” The question was from a very fair, young girl. I was entertaining myself window shopping inside the store. Not very pleased at the interruption, I gave her a ‘will you please keep quiet’ smile of mine.

She was unrelenting. “Ma’am this is a very good face wash for dark skin like yours….”

She stopped abruptly because my eyes hit her suddenly as I withdrew them from gazing on the shelf and fixed my glance on her face. “Eh…er...” she stammered and stumbled. “Your skin type can get many pimples ...this face wash is good...” First she called me dark and then she was saying my skin was having pimples. I was amused.

My paternal side of the family is all fair and lovely. My maternal side is fifty percent fair and lovely and fifty percent Vicco Turmeric as my maternal grandmother is very fair and maternal grandfather dark, from whom I seem to have inherited my skin.

There was a tall, fair and imposing distant relative, a granduncle, who was the President of the local community association. Whenever he passed our house, if he spotted me playing in the courtyard, he would enter through the kottiyambalam and call me near. He would hold both my arms together, peer into my face and say, “Oho…you are Puthen Veedu Vijayan’s daughter, isn’t it?”

I would mumble a yes and then he would continue feigning a puzzled expression, “Vijayan is fair, his mom Retnamma Chechi is very fair…all of them there are fair…how come YOU are dark?”

I would go darker with anger. All I wanted to do would be to roll my fist, gather my strength and punch him on the nose. Instead, I would just look away as he laughed aloud showing shiny dentures, his fair form enhanced by his silver hair and white attire.

Once I assembled my will and replied, “I am not from Puthen Veedu. I belong to Kalpavilakom.” Kalpavilakom is my maternal house.

The giant laughed hilariously at that and said, “Is it? So you are Kalpavilakom Thankom’s granddaughter? But Thankom is very fair!” Thankom is my maternal grandmother. She is very fair and still lovely at the age of eighty six.

I vividly remember the giant granduncle’s loud laugh. After that day, if I get a whiff of his arrival, I would dart inside the house and would not come out until he left. Later when I was older, I found out that his wife was a dark lady. He had no children.

Dark, dusky or earthy, I love my skin because that is the only guise I have.

Once a good friend told me, “People say deep and bright colours don’t suit dark skin. I see you wearing all those colours and they suit you very well.”

My dark skin has never prevented me from wearing the colour I like. I can wear any colour I like and match it with my attitude!