Our Obsession with fair skin...

When Mikhail was born, I remember a neighbour said to me,
Oh Mikhail doesn't have your fair skin, he's got the Wheatish complexion of his daddy!
Thats when I  realised we Indians are obsessed with fair skin,
Even matrimonial ads read " want homely girl with FAIR complexion"

Why are we so obsessed with the white colour?
Is it because of the once upon a time, colonial dominance, British era!
There are 100s of creams available to make one fair,
Besides the various bleaches to lighten our facial hair.
we have "Fair And lovely" for women and  now "fair and handsome" for men,
Gone are the days where men wanted to be "tall, handsome and darkened"!
Poor women are rejected because of the colour of their skin,
Can't prospective bachelors be a little less superfluous and see what's within.

Even the media shows dark skinned people sometimes in poor light,
Privileges are given to the fair skinned or those who are pale white.
The funniest of all is when the parents are dark and dusky,
They expect the child they give birth to, to be fair, blue eyed and milky.
When our Indian Gods are depicted in browns, Blues and greys
Why are we so obsessed with the colour white and being fair.
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and is found skin deep,
Beauty is not defined by our colour, but by the goodness we reap.
It's sad that Michael Jackson though he sang " it doesn't matter if you're black or white"
didn't practice what he preached and made himself light.
So I guess it's not just an Indian obsession but also global,
Why did God make some of us black or some of us white,
Why couldn't he just make us all purple!