BBC News - India's unbearable lightness of being

BBC News - India's unbearable lightness of being

Not only India, it is indeed an obsession throughout East and South East Asia. Thailand, for instance, has more obsession with the 'white' skin. More than 50% of adverts, any media, seen in Thailand, are for whitening products.

Japans' obsession for being 'pale' white, is well known.

Then again, instead of analyzing this syndrome, I look at it a different way. What about those 'white' people wanting to get a tan. Look darker? Funny to see, in Thailand, the locals go extremes to get white. Hats, umbrella, avoid sun, sun block, whitening creams, full length clothing, you name it. They find the westerner a bit crazy, since they wear minimal cloths, lay stark naked on the beach, all for getting dark.

Yes there is this craze of looking fairer and whiter amongst those communities that are inherently dark due to geographical or whatever other reason. To understand this in most simple terms, 'Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence'. Humans have always wanted what they see in others and don't have them.