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How Fair Do We Need To Be? Melvin Durai Melvin Durai is an Indiana-based writer and humorist. Born in Tamil Nadu, India, he grew up in Zambia and moved to the U.S. in the early 1980s. In 1995, while working as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Chambersburg, Pa., he began writing a regular humor column. His weekly column now appears in several newspapers and on a number of Web sites. He also writes a twice-monthly column on Indian and Indian-American issues. He is a diehard fan of the National Football League and also likes to run, lift weights and play soccer, tennis and pool. An award-winning feature writer and aspiring novelist, he plans to publish a collection of his best columns. You can write to him at comments@melvindurai.com To read his older columns, go to http://www.melvindurai.com

I've never been concerned about my complexion, though hardly anyone - not even my dear mother -- would consider me light-skinned. In fact, the only time someone has ever called me "fair," he was referring to my journalism skills.

I've never spent a penny on skin-lightening creams, never tried to stay out of the sun, never bathed in a mixture of egg yolks and goat milk.

I've been rather content with my complexion, as content as I am with having black hair, brown eyes and blue contact lenses.

Things would probably be different, of course, if I were a woman, especially a single woman. Eager to use the word "fair" in my matrimonial ad, I would have spent more money on fairness creams than on saris. You can cover up a lot with a sari, but not quite enough.

It's no major revelation that the skin-lightening obsession in Indian society is more prevalent among women than men. If a woman is fair-skinned, she is automatically beautiful, no matter how many coats you could hang from her nose. If a woman is dark-skinned, she'd have almost no chance of winning the Miss India contest, even if her personality were as top-notch as her plastic surgeon.

Men, on the other hand, have never had to obsess over their complexion, largely because they're judged more by their earning power than their looks. A single doctor who advertises himself as "tall, dark and handsome" would get far more attention from women than a single writer who's "tall, fair and unemployed."

The situation may be changing though - and not necessarily for the better. A recent survey commissioned by the Media Researchers Users Council (MRUC) found that 32% of fairness cream users in India are men! Yes, men are using products such as Fair Glow, Fairever, and Fair & Lovely, trying hard to prove that women are no longer the fairer sex.

Instead of getting women less obsessed with complexion, our society has managed to get men more obsessed. If this continues, you'll soon see new beauty products such as Fair Guy, Fairmale, and Fair & Hairy.

Most users of fairness creams probably consider themselves dark-skinned. But "dark" and "fair" are relative terms. The woman calling herself "very fair" in a matrimonial ad may be darker than the woman calling herself "medium-complexioned," but fairer than the woman calling herself "as fair as Snow White."

If I were conducting a fairness survey, I would ask the following multiple-choice questions:

1. How do you rate your skin complexion? >br>(a) I'm so fair, it's almost unfair;
(b) In my dreams, I'm fair;
(c) I'm Fair & Lovely;
(d) It's fair to say I'm fairly dark;
(e) In my nightmares, I'm dark;
(f) This is an unfair question.

2. What methods do you use to lighten your skin?
(a) I regularly use fairness creams;
(b) I rub coconut milk on my body every morning;
(c) I roll around in a paste of besan and milk cream every night;
(d) I pray three times a day to Aishwarya, the goddess of fair skin;
(e) I eat five pounds of white chocolate every day;
(f) I never leave home when the sun is out;
(g) I've changed my name to Gourangi, which means fair complexioned.

3. What is your primary reason for lightening your skin?
(a) To attract a husband/wife;
(b) To please my future mother-in-law;
(c) To become a Bollywood actor/actress;
(d) To become more visible at night.

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