My grandma loved powdering up my face and I loved it because it smelt like her. Old and cute. Like dead roses in milk. Talcum powder is useful to absorb moisture and sweat and stuff but damn I turned a couple shades lighter and greyer. Coming to India I learnt a lot of things, like how to dance how to muster the courage to light fireworks and how to drink rasam Sadam off a flat leaf with my hands ( still haven't mastered it ngl) I never thought about my skin tone until I came to India where beauty is measured by where you stand on fair and lovely's scale of 1-10 . India has such a wide range of skin tones more than I know of in any other country. It took me a while to get over the inferiority complex that comes with being called dark and the added comparisons to my younger sister who is relatively lighter than me. I was going through my message requests and besides the few kind and the occasional creepy messages, I got a few " you're really pretty despite your dark skin" and that made me feel really confused. Was it a compliment? Or an insult. Id like to think I'm pretty because of my skin tone.
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My insecurities
PoetryIn a world of striving for perfection in your thoughts, appearance and emotion, I'm here to tell you I don't fit in. And that's ok!
