I once wanted to be Snow White

I was shopping at our local Indian grocers the other day and came across a familiar brand of cosmetics from the past - Fair and Lovely. Surprise surprise, it's still around. Not only is it still around, but many others have flourished since. I stopped, quietly reflecting for a moment my memories associated with the damn thing...

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard an aunty in India say, "She has lovely features but if only she was fairer...", I swear, I'd be a millionaire with a nice little rustic villa somewhere in the Italian Riviera, sipping coffee and basking in the evening sun. I have to admit, I've have been a victim to the 'fairness creams' scam (I'll reserve that for another time) and home remedies as well, smothering lemon juice and such on my face, back when I was a little girl convinced that if I didn't become 'fair' (light skinned) by the time I grew into a young lass, I'd be doomed. In retrospect, I'm terribly ashamed. But there weren't many people then to tell me otherwise and I was just an impressionable little girl in pigtails. I'd usually get the "she's pretty but too bad she doesn't have her brother's skin color..." line from people. Notice the 'but' that slips in there quite inadvertently. If only someone had told me then that dusky was sexy! :-) I find it quite disturbing and ironic that in a country where skin color spans every tone on the planet from the darkest to the lightest, every matrimonial advert will read, "...wanted fair, beautiful bride...". Never mind what the guy looks like. Imagine what girls with fairer sisters go through, not to mention the blatant comparisons by jobless women in the neighborhood.

I'm talking about hundreds of years of mental conditioning here, so deep rooted that people don't know they are a victim to it. Heck, I didn't know. It took a lot for me to come out of it. But once I crossed the rocky terrains of these set-in-stone dogmas, I found it apalling that I was living comfortably in that place once. A place filled with prejudices based on nothing. A place where questioning was not welcome. A friend of mine once said this in complete seriousness while in argument with me: "If you had a white colored handkerchief, it's like the difference between it being dirty and it being washed and clean". Enough said? I couldn't believe my ears.

I was reading a book last night titled 'Sceptical Essays', beautifully written essays by Bertrand Russell (I adore his writings) and this line stuck in my head: "What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite."

I'm glad I have since always wished to to find out before I believed.

So i've recently gotten addicted to the Bone comic series. Ash brought the first one from the library. When I started reading it, I couldn't put it down!! I've finished 3 out of the 9 book series so far. It's got classic comic book humor and art, old style, really funny! Makes me nostalgic about Asterix. I highly recommend it! You can find some info about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_(comics)

(wikipedia is trivia girl's (a.k.a me) new best friend :-))

What is it about life that keeps us all going? Is it love? Is it money? Hope of a better afterlife? Sometimes I envy those staunch believers of God (notice I said 'those'). They always look like there is purpose to it all. They believe that there is something better out there waiting for them after they 'move on to the next world'. Is there really? How do you know? How can you base your life on the sheer possibility of something happening after a time you might not even recognise yourself? I personally think there is nothing that scares the living daylights of people as the prospect of simply turning into dust after a lifetime of hard work and effort put into striving for a better something. Maybe the mystery surrounding the 'unknown' provides hope even to the most forlorn, or rather, especially to the most forlorn. But what about us who are stuck in the middle, trying to reason all this out? Is there any hope for us?

I would say love and all the beautiful people and things in life keep me going. Hmm, but doesn't it sound rather idealistic? It's an absolutely beautiful feeling no doubt, but when was the last time you could sustain yourself from just being in love? On the other hand, when was the last time you were truly blissfully happy based on the work you did on a particular day? Truth is none of us honestly knows what we stay alive for. We all weave our own little realms of dreams and reality to keep life going. As long as we stay within our little webs everything is good. We are all working towards a goal with the people we love and care about. We're all trying to do our best and be our best. Within our worlds, we've all got purpose. I am compelled to quote a lovely line from the movie Dead Poets' Society where Prof. Keating says to his students:

"...And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for..."

I think that line defines us humans and summarises what most of us strive for in our little worlds.

However, the real question is, what lies outside our little worlds? Is there truly a purpose we're 'supposed' to work towards? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? What does that mean anyway?! (Had to throw it out there since I've been hearing it all my life) If there isn't an over arching story to all of us, what are we alive for then? Anybody got any answers?

and so it begins....

I often wondered about the usefulness of blogging when blogs first became a craze. Apart from blogs on specific topics that I considered educational or useful in some way, I couldn't understand why anyone with a sane mind would want to read personal blogs with random musings of other troubled (or not so troubled) souls on the planet. Well, needless to say where I was heading with this, I now find myself reading friends' (and some strangers') blogs with random musings indeed! I'm mostly talking about the kinds of blogs where people write about things that happen in their daily lives, or thoughts about life in general. There's something appealing about reading a snapshot of people's lives, even if it's a very small one. Sometimes you learn a thing or two and occasionally it even challenges your own thoughts. Other times, it just helps keep up to date with the lives of the people that you care about.

Anyway, digressing completely from my chatter on blogging, what A and I are most excited about at this time is that we're running a half marathon (13.1 miles) in a month, on November 26th. FYI, neither of us had run further than 2 miles ever until about 5 months ago! So this is pretty thrilling for us. Not only that it's a physical challenge for us, it's also for a very good cause. The money we raise for supporting our marathon will go directly to 3 projects related to educating poor children in rural parts of India. I've finally start my fund raising for that. Hopefully, I'll be able to meet my goal and contribute my small bit to the cause.