I could write an essay in response to your essay. While I loved being compared to the likes of Shabana Azmi (only recently) and Konkona Sen, I never thought of it the way you've so beautifully expressed here. It took me ages to accept my skin tone and like my appearance wholeheartedly. Thank you for writing this, Roshni. It felt 'cringy', but someone had to.
I'm so sorry Sabah.....recently an aunt said the most god awful things about our childhood skin colours ...after she left ...my sister turned around and said ..i was a cute baby what is she so upset about! I realised how lucky we were that the parents couldn't care less about this. They have among their generation faced a lot of shit on this
"For someone who was fairly (bwahahaha) unscathed by direct strong prejudice about the colour of her skin, I cannot deny that I was a bit singed nonetheless" GENIUS :)
Only you can write as eloquently about skin and still make me smile. Your essay is powerful and gentle - a reminder to keep our biases in check - even when you are compared to beautiful actresses on the silver screen.
Roshni, you bring such fresh perspective in every thing that you write. Skin colour has been written about so much but this feels so new. That skin colour game for example. Or all the actresses.
P.S. and slightly orthogonal but Nandita Das is a genius.
Loved this so much. As always you're so incredible at relating the personal and social, and internal responses to this external chatter. As a child who thought my knees were unnecessarily, embarrassingly dark, I'm glad to get to know my sisters, you know? Thank you <3
Dearest Roshni
I could write an essay in response to your essay. While I loved being compared to the likes of Shabana Azmi (only recently) and Konkona Sen, I never thought of it the way you've so beautifully expressed here. It took me ages to accept my skin tone and like my appearance wholeheartedly. Thank you for writing this, Roshni. It felt 'cringy', but someone had to.
I'm so sorry Sabah.....recently an aunt said the most god awful things about our childhood skin colours ...after she left ...my sister turned around and said ..i was a cute baby what is she so upset about! I realised how lucky we were that the parents couldn't care less about this. They have among their generation faced a lot of shit on this
Also tum apne aap main kaafi gold standard ho !
"Main kaafi gold standard hun..." What a lovely way to see yourself :) Thank you, dost <3
Abe tum
LOL ;)
Lovely! Cheers to the sisterhood. You and samira are giving me lovely prompts. 🤓
hahahaha! I did see it on my feed and I've been so far behind on my reading I don't know where to start---- aiyoo!
"For someone who was fairly (bwahahaha) unscathed by direct strong prejudice about the colour of her skin, I cannot deny that I was a bit singed nonetheless" GENIUS :)
Only you can write as eloquently about skin and still make me smile. Your essay is powerful and gentle - a reminder to keep our biases in check - even when you are compared to beautiful actresses on the silver screen.
Thank you Samira, it was such a pet peeve for me !
Roshni, you bring such fresh perspective in every thing that you write. Skin colour has been written about so much but this feels so new. That skin colour game for example. Or all the actresses.
P.S. and slightly orthogonal but Nandita Das is a genius.
Thank you Sanket, I feel mighty encouraged.
Loved this so much. As always you're so incredible at relating the personal and social, and internal responses to this external chatter. As a child who thought my knees were unnecessarily, embarrassingly dark, I'm glad to get to know my sisters, you know? Thank you <3
Safaaaa thank you! Oh yess...how different our knees look .....i think Kajol made it all better for some of us when she entered the scene !