Goray rung ka zamana kaubi hoga na purana

I have met quite a few dark skinned girls who are comfortable in their own skin. Most of the darker of the fairer sex are crazed about fair complexion. The following is an excerpt from Nirad C Chaudhry's book about the preference given by prospective groom's parents to fair girls.

"At the time of the inspection of the girls for marriage their claim to fair complexion is scrutinized very rigorously. In west Bengal, until recently it was not uncommon to rub apparently fair-looking girls with a wet towel to find out whether their complexion was natural or made up. On account of this insistence on fair complexion, the fathers of marriageable dark girls sometimes substituted a fairer sister at the time of the inspection, with dire results for the dark girl after marriage." an excerpt from The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.

I remember a female colleague of mine from express news, who despite being exceptionally fair, would keep on trying various creams, often without prescription, to whiten her complexion. She always sported pimples on her face, courtesy of her do-it-yourself (DIY) dermatology experiments.