Every Rupee Counts !!!

Today I went to a Hair Saloon at IIM B campus for the first time. I am surprised to find an empty shop, after sometime a fellow came & asked me to sit down on the chair. I saw the rates of cutting & shaving as Rs 30 & 15 resp. I asked him for cutting an shaving which will cost me Rs 45. He lazily started with his job with lots of yawns in between. After the shaving is over he even forget to apply after shave lotion which I have to remind him. I handed over a Rs 100 note to him which he took & handed me back a Rs 50 note. I stood there for some time waiting him to give me back the remaining Rs 5 but it never came to me. I am forced to ask him to give me the balance Rs 5 to which to my utter dismay he gave me a dirty look as if I have commited a sin asking for the balance. He said "Rs 5 not a Big Deal" to which I replied "I believe in closing every deal with fairness what-so-ever small it may be". I don't believe he has done anything extra to charge a premium. To this he replied "Nobody does". This let me think about somebody who told me that Bangalore is 2nd most costliest city in India after Mumbai. Why does inflation have more effect on 1 region than another ? Why the difference between percieved rate of an service or a product & the actual rate differed widely across geographical locations. From Barauni in Bihar to Bangalore in Karnataka the difference is huge. People are dying out of Hunger in India but well-to-do people in our society are wasting their excess money & encourage corruption by giving Tips & not collecting Rs 5 back in my case. I compare this with corruption as it is leading to exchange of money outside the view & knowledge of general public to gain certain favourable services... It is more valuable to donate excess part of disposable income in charity funds that will help in bringing up the life of several destitutes in India... If we want to see an Incredible India free of poverty we must follow the mantra that "Every Rupee Counts"

Is Dark Skin Dirty ?

It so happens a few days ago, I was talking to a female friend of mine who has completed her MBBS & is currently pursuing her internship. As our conversation continues she told me about her fascination on everything that looks good & quoted an incident that happened to her when she is at hospital.

A pregnant female patient came to her for check up & she got so engrossed with her beauty (assume fairness to be an integral part of beauty) that she started exploring her from head to toe.... After few minutes she regained senses that she has a work to do & start checking up when she saw a dark ugly (assume black skin to be an integral part of ugliness) person came in... When she enquired about him, she found out that the person is her husband. She politely asked him to wait outside but she can't resist her asking the b'ful lady whether she has an arranged marriage. To her utter dismay she found that her fear for arrange marriages are True. She is very furious about the fact that females in our country are being forced to marry a below average guy & why always females were asked to compromise on their wishes while boys always enjoys a superior position in the Indian Society.

Her thoughts were slowly sinking in & I m trying to think about the role of a women in our society. But somehow my mind rotates around those unsaid (bracketed) sentences. Several Questions arises in my mind
India is a secular country & our constitution doesnot discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, colour or religion but how many Black Indian Citizens were subjected to silent racial abuse? Is this figure more than the percentange of female population who faces discrimination ? Why always in a matrimonial advertisement fairness is a must required quality for a bride & girls family who are looking for a Groom always considered her daughter as fair or at the max wheatish ?
I can't get any of these answers but I can now understand why my mother always keep saying that she will search for a fair & beautiful girl for my marriage ?

Last Century had seen a lot of significant changes as Apartheid regime was crushed in South Africa & Nelson Mandela got Noble Prize in 1993, India got Independence from 200 years of British Regime. Britishers came to India in 1776 A.D & the History tell us facts that Britishers ruled the country with a very small army as compared to those with the kings who ruled India in that period. There are some significant writings on how many of the Indian Kings falls pray of the fair skin mistresses accompanied th Britishers that they handover all their wealth without even fighting them although they have a superior army.

The idea of getting Fairer doesnot seems to be dying in India. Girls will continue to cover their faces & hands while going out in sun. they will continue using 'besan' & all sort of creams to get fairer.
Even Hospitality & Aviation Sector in particular will continue giving hiring preferences to fairer skins silently. Nothing goes Black & White in such recruitments, everything is Gray.

Who else other than the manufacturers of Fairness Creams (like HLL, P&G) knows better the Deep Rooted psychology of Indians that are biased over fairer skin. I always think my sister as the most beautiful & intelligent girl in the world but my belief's got shattered after going through the extent my parents went to face rejections & suffered to find a suitable groom for her marriage.


BARRACK OBAMA has become the first Black President in the history of United States of America. He has promised that Democrats will provide
"THE CHANGE WE NEED".


BIG QUESION is
Can a change really happen in the MINDS of the people ?





The Legendery Actor WILL SMITH has shown us how human perseverance & determination can let one achieve her Goals in the movie
"THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS"
BIG QUESION is
Can a Dark Indian can really smile & feel proud of being BLACK ?

Below is an excerpt from indiatimes article on Advertisement of Fairness Cream.

Aishwarya Rai refuses to endorse fairness cream 26 Dec, 2008 07:32 am IST MUMBAI MIRROR
Text:
Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan does us proud, again. In a country which is unjustly obsessed with fair skin – India - Aishwarya Rai recently took a firm stand. She refused to be the Indian face of a skin-lightening cream by a global cosmetic company. After Aishwarya turned down the offer, the cosmetic company signed Sonam Kapoor to endorse the fairness cream. The cosmetic company is positioning Sonam Kapoor as a 'young face', as opposed to Aishwarya Rai who may now be called the 'older face' of the cosmetic industry. However, a source reveals that the key factor behind Sonam Kapoor being the new face has got nothing to do with her age. Revealing the real reason for Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan's refusal and Sonam Kapoor's subsequent approval, our source said, "It was the fairness cream that bothered Aishwarya. She said that she didn't want to promote a fairness cream especially in India where one's skin colour is such a big issue. She will never promote a product that discriminates on the basis of one's skin colour. Ours is a society where biases are so prevalent that she will do all she can to curb it."

To read the entire article visit the link given below - http://movies.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3893641.cms

Here are some facts about the Dark Skin -

Dark skin helps protect against skin cancer that develops as a result of ultraviolet light radiation, causing mutations in the skin.[citation needed] Furthermore, dark skin prevents an essential B vitamin, folate, from being destroyed. Therefore, in the absence of modern medicine and diet, a person with dark skin in the tropics would live longer, be healthier and likelier to reproduce than a person with light skin. White Australians have some of the highest rates of skin cancer as evidence of this expectation. Conversely, as dark skin prevents sunlight from penetrating the skin it hinders the production of vitamin D3. Hence when humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D3 levels became a problem and lighter skin colors started appearing. The people of Europe, who have low levels of melanin, naturally have an almost colorless skin pigmentation, especially when untanned. This low level of pigmentation allows the blood vessels to become visible and gives the characteristic pale pink color of white people. The primary difference in skin color between blacks and whites is however a minor genetic difference accounting for just one letter in 3.1 billion letters of DNA.