A dear friend and one of the finest people in the tech circles that I move around in is Mr Vivek K & here is a gem from V!

My experiments with Colors.

Life ain’t fair. Neither am I.  On numerous occasions in the past 23 years, I have reminded myself of this statement.  I am 23 years old.  I have lived in Jaipur,Delhi,Mumbai and Pune.  I belong to a middle class family.  I am studying pure sciences.  I am working in technology startup.  I have a great social circle.  I am also a LEO.  And yes, I have a “fairly” dark complexion.  The last line adds a pinch of black to the entire picture. I say it form my experiences, that the  world has 2 kinds of people – The Dark one’s (like me)– and the not so dark one’s.- This includes the whites (all shades), the browns, wheatish, and my lighter shades.  It’s a different world altogether when looked from the eyes of a black skinned person. I will share some of my experiences – some good, some bad.

Considering that my grandfather is no more, I am probably the darkest soul in my family – both Paternal and Maternal, when it comes to color. I studied in 4 schools- Adarsh Vidya Mandir – Sirohi, St Paul School – Sirohi, Seedling Public School – Jaipur and Maheshwari Public School, Jaipur – and without fail I was the darkest student in all the classes. So the TAG – blacky came naturally to me.  I have collected some very funny names all this while. Here are some of my favorites – Invisible After Sunlight (IAS), Kallu (klue,callu,klu), Kalia (I wish I was born in the Pre Sholay Era), Nigger, Nigero, Nigga, African, kalz, kalua. Lara and Black Mamba are the latest addition to the list.

It was probably in 3^rd standard I had my last fight with a guy who was 10 may be 15 “shades lighter than me” regarding one of those above names. I had almost killed him.  I gave up after that.  I realized that I was no hulk who could beat them all or Abraham Lincoln/Nelson Mandela who could not teach the world a lesson about Racism.  I decided to give up – Give up on every single remark ever made about my complexion. (The world complexion sounds very “Britsh but – The place where I belong to, people like calling it Color. It sounds even better in when called “Rang”. )

I don’t know if I should blame my color – or the color of the fairer breed or the era when I was a student or Sholay or may be the city where I lived – I could never gather the confidence to go on stage.  The only memory I have of going on stage was for a fancy dress competition where I was dressed as a joker – yes they painted me all white. The only time I ever went on stage after that was on my 16^th Birthday because all the birthday boys (I did my +2 from a boys school) were given a Birthday Card on stage.

Along with my color came the limited range of colors I could choose to pick my clothes. 3 shades of blue, 2 shades of green and anything that is Grey, yes that’s all you would find in my cup board. For me the color palette was always limited to Grey- Green-Blue. I always use to wonder why the costume designer in Telgu Films got orange shirts and red pants designed – Was he genuinely serious? Or did we miss the humor?

At this point I would like to introduce my family. Since I am the darkest one in my family, the entire family tried every possible fairness cream – Fair and Lovely, Garnier, Ponds, The_Cream_From_Dubai, even Amway. By the time I reached 8^th standard, I revolted. Then came the desi products – Besan, Multani Mitti. But as you can see, nothing literally nothing seemed to work on me.  My family gave up against God’s wish of maintaining my dark color. Though the odd phone calls and advice about the_new_cream_of_vaseline come in till date.  I could sense that their concern for my skin getting a shade or two lighter was absolutely valid – They probably believed that even if hell would break loose no “fair” bride would accept a black groom. At the age of 13 there is very little that I could do. I retained my stand. Actually, I had no options.

By this time I had my first crush in school. It took me over 10 years to confess it to her. Back in 8^th, I had assumed that black guys are destined to die single. Who in this world would fall for a black guy leave apart marrying him? My faith in my assumption was so strong that the thought of talking to the girl never crossed my mind. Though the circle I hanged out with had a lot of girls but I believe they were all friends with me because they thought I was “too safe”. Around the same time a cousin of mine introduced me to Sidney Sheldon. I picked up on reading. After reading 3 of those novels and confirming with my cousin I had assured myself that the jargon – Tall Dark and Handsome was a valid term and had no sarcasm attached. Though I continued to be skeptical about its validity in city I was living.

I was academically superior than a lot of my batch mates – probably that was the reason people did have some respect for me. Or wait it might have been pity also – You never know.  As my school came to an end – thanks to everything around me – events, people, friends and family and my color – I had developed a shell around myself . The world I lived in had very few people – handpicked people who never thought twice before talking to a black guy.  My color and not my potential had decided limits for me.

Life moved on but my color did not. Probably I was enjoying being black – it added an element of distinctness to me.  I could be identified with ease in a crowd. While this  feature at times can be quiet helpful, it can prove to be detrimental at times.  For instance in a class of 150 students – the professor would be able to recall your face distinctly and can ask you awkward questions during the exam -” I didn’t see you after the first week of the semester, where have you been ?” For most of my friends, I invented “Black Humor”.  Now I believe that I did.  With college almost coming to an end, I don’t think I have to take more of this. I want to believe that my color is behind me but something inside tells me that the worst is yet to come. I have always had these questions intriguing me -

Why is black equivalent to being dangerous/bad/ugly ?

Why would they sit next to the white guy on the bus even if seat next to me is empty ?

Is having a dark complexion such a taboo ?

What is it with the fair skin that attracts all of you ?

Why do people frown when they see me with a fairer girl ?

Why can’t you love the dusky girl in your class but keep stating at bipasha basu’s wallpaper ?

By the way, the date on my computer screen is 15th Aug.  Are we really free ?

P.S

We live in a country obsessed with Fair Color. The fairness and beauty product market as trends have it is close to 2500 CRORES.   These are times when Sharukh Khan wants to get fairer by using fair and handsome, John Abraham needs Garnier Fairness Cream to impress a dusky beauty and Shahid Kapoor spends one minute on his Fairness. (CAN YOU BEAT THAT – ONE ENTIRE MINUTE !! ).  We also live in times when every girl in the US wants to meet the tall, dark and handsome  OLD Spice Man. Quiet an interesting era -isn’t it ?

Originally posted on Room No 368 – By Vivek Khandelwal

I received a forward mail from a friend today, which linked to the following article criticizing the system for the serial blasts across India. Here are my views on the same.

Its hard to digest the fact that dozen’s of bombs are found in big cities, outside hospitals, busy markets and even the police station. Is it really that easy to plant a bomb? Or perhaps the biggest question, Is it really that easy to make a bomb and run a terror network?

My answer would be Yes and No. Don’t get confused, but in a nation of 1 billion people no matter how much security cams you set up, no matter how much frisking and checking you do; there would be breach of security somewhere or the other. When these terrorists can accomplish something of the scale of 9/11 in US, this is certainly no big feat.

Making these low intensity bombs aren’t too difficult (not saying that they are easy) and planting them certainly isn’t very difficult either, they fit into a school bag easily. My friend Piyansh easily passes coke bottles inside theatre’s (again not implying that he can carry bombs as well ), all I want to say is these small bombs are somewhat easy to hide and travel with. (You can read more on Terrorist Bombs here)

A very common comparison that I draw between Internet and the material world is the Policing. If you look at any biggie on the internet, say Youtube, Facebook, eBay, Orkut etc all of them rely on the community (users) to report anything objectionable. Not that they don’t have their own checks, but then it is practically impossible to manually keep a tab on the millions of their users. Similarly even the our local police relies on the public to report suspicious activities to them. Now here is where the problem for me rises …

How much do the people trust the police? How confident would you feel to report such an activity to the police? Has the police department maintained a good image, worth trusting? The day several blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, the police in Mumbai were on high alert. Nakabandi and patrolling was beefed up. And just a little past mid-night they took away 4 servants who work in my neighborhood (along with many others I presume). So while returning from a bday party in Virar I get the SOS call from my neighbor Piyansh that we need to rush to the Police Station to get these guys back. (More on this day of my life, which I call the Longest Day of My Life II – Later)

So as I reach the police station (a little past 1Am), I realize that these people were taken into custody by officers from the ‘Detection Dept’ – Which I presume is some thing serious. They don’t wear a Police uniform (at least the seniors I met in the jeep outside of the police station didn’t), so that really means they are into investigation. So I approached this person in the jeep (who according to the constables was the man incharge) and told him that they have arrested innocent people with no criminal intent or background. Yeah just that they were 4 ppl (+ driver) in a stationed rickshaw listening to FM.

And I was shocked at the response I got “Are you PM? Are you CM? I listen to only two people!”. This according to me describes the attitude and image that these police men carry!

Where can the authorities improve (In My Opinion):

• Make the cops more accessible and friendly. Seen the movie Hancock? These cops need a PR consultant according to me.
• Get an online + anonymous system for citizens to report suspicious activities
• Cut out corruption in security contracts. We need better CCTV cams. I recently read about the CCTV at the Airport being of so poor quality that the a person who lost his baggage couldn’t recognize even himself while examination of the CCTV footage.
• Streamline the intelligence, faster flow of info. (though am not a expert on how it functions)

All that is written above are my personal views, you are free to post your comments below.

Image courtesy BBC

My Original Values:

1. All people are basically good

2. Everyone has something to offer

3. Everyone in this world is equal

4. Nothing happens against Gods will

The Changed ones below

1. All people are basically good – Yeah, that means all ppl appear good. So if you are just gonna see them passing by, its OK. Otherwise be careful dealing.

2. Everyone has something to offer – Yes 100% true. But that doesn’t mean they have something for you. A criminal won’t have anything good to offer to a saint…

3. Everyone in this world is equal – Only till things are normal. Ever seen a police case? a lawsuit? any big panga? Pata chalega kitna equality aur insaaf hai…

4. Nothing happens against Gods will – Only after you reach him

Ps: I am still trying to chalk out the right one (come-on I haven’t lived long enough to know everything perfectly)