‘If we all convert to Islam will terrorism stop? ’
Any answers?

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Why are we obsessed with the white skin? Is it in the Indian genes or a colonial hang-over that white skin defines beauty? The market is flooded with the skin whitening creams. Fair & Lovely from HLL is one such brand that has exploited this psyche and has now a massive 53 per cent market share. Star Plus even runs a tele-serial on this very theme: the duskier sister is not getting married and the whole family is in tension!

(from L to R : Noyonika Chatterjee, Carol Gracious and Sheetal Malhar)

Does that mean that not-so-fair people stand no chance of getting success; at least the ad seems to convey this only. A dusky girl comes home like a lost solider, gets a complete makeover by using a fairness cream and wow! She is on the top. Ironically, most of the top Indian models like Sheetal Malhaar, Carol Gracious, Noyonika Chaterjee, Dipanita Sharma, Nina Manuel are dusky beauties. Grooming experts say it’s not just the complexion but the whole personality that counts. I think it is high time we shun all our preconceived notions and stop discriminating with those born with natural darker shades of skin. After all there is lot more to success than the shade of one’s skin.

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We have always taken west as a benchmark in everything we do, commercial or non commercial, and consciously or subconsciously look for stamps of approvals of west, particularly USA even for our own accomplishments. We are decades past the colonial rule but the ‘white is superior’ mentality still prevails. But, now slowly the tables seem to be turning. The year 2008 saw a new version of USA. The Wall Street failed and became the fall street. Even the US Government’s enormous bail out package is not proving of much help; instead, it has won US a jocular title of being a new USSR: the United States Socialist Republic! So, watch out, all those fans of Ayan Rand (the self proclaimed salesperson of capitalism)! there is a clear proof that capitalism too is not perfect.

(Nehru and Lenin)

India adopted a socialistic model that was very heavily inspired by the USSR (now this big entity has broken down). Nehru was impressed so he cut-pasted the formula here too; it failed miserably. The corrupt government officials hampered the nation’s progress. Poor became poorer while the black money market thrived. Public sector became synonymous with bribery and corruption. Though Indira Gandhi did some things very effective, like self sufficiency in food production, looking from the marketing and consumerism point of view, the business and entrepreneurship had literally no scope in India. Sabir Bhatia, Laxmi Niwas Mittal, etc are few examples of how people became successful when they went out of India. License permit raj ruled the roost. A 5 years waiting for a phone, bribery at each step, etc were rampant.
(Dr. Manmohan singh, then FM and PV Narsimha Rao,the then PM)

They remain even now but, if seen in juxtaposition, the once-upon-a-time humble Indian consumer now commands the market and makes the even the biggest MNCs dance to his tunes. These ‘magical’ powers have come because of the LPG- liberalization, privatization and globalization. Though I am not finding flaws in the socialism but my point is that it failed USSR and India as well. At last, the sleepy Indian government woke up, played a gamble (we borrowed heavily from the World Bank) and luckily, won, courtesy the Narsimha Rao govt. in 1991. It was a push factor rather than a choice. So India ‘had’ to open her gates wide to the rest of the world. Thus the poor and humble Indian consumer was made aware of his magical powers and he got a choice like never before. India got a fast makeover, and faster in the later part of this decade. Thus, it can be concluded that socialism flopped but this does not means that capitalism is infallible!

The salesman for capitalism, USA saw its biggest nightmare come true. Though India struggled a lot to stand properly after independence (if we compare to Japan, then we have performed poorly) the reverend king USA has also not been an A grader. Most people do agree with socialistic model of the government but to say capitalistic model is right, I feel is not appropriate. At last everyone seems to be turning to a mixed economy model, may be with minor modifications.

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