“Mere Wala Brown”
By:Rajbir Deswal

Talking about the “seven sins”, Shakespeare mentions a “green-eyed monster” to connote jealousy among human beings. “Gora rung” or fair complexion of the beloved may have been a subjective preference with a few poets while describing the beloved’s charms, but there are others also who sing, “Kahin ek masoom nazuk see larki; Bahut khoobsurat, magar sanwli see”.
“Sanwla” may not be dark but it is definitely “not so fair” and this attribute in the Hindu way of life may be ascribed to “Sanwra salona Krishan Kanhayya”.
But what about expressions like being “red with rage” or “lal peelay hone”; having a wicked heart or “kale-dil-wala”; turning pale or “peela par jana”; being white-livered or “sookhe jigar wala”; telling a white lie or “safed jhoot bolna”; and so on?
Human beings seem to appreciate with colours not only their skinny appearance but also they will paint certain emotions with different hues. This again is a subject deep-rooted in human psyche.
The best example of this colour bias in human beings is the question of apartheid as also that we call the royal people, possessing veins through which not red but blur blood flows. And why only this that intelligent people have “grey matter” in their brains while everybody else’s substance in that protected cavity of the skull is again of the same colour.
Our poets definitely dwell on rosy lips, pink cheeks, a brown cascade of hair, silvery voice, unfathomable ocean-blue eyes, and what not!
While in England in 1992 I came across a very interesting explanation, given by certain Asians, of being the best complexioned race in the Almighty’s scheme of things and to his liking.
Having created the homo-sapiens, God decided to give the man appropriate colour. He ordered for an oven in which the humans thus created were put to be baked and soaked in a definite pigment.
This oven was opened only to find that the humans were over-baked and they acquired a very dark complexion. “What to do with these…?” God pondered for a while and ordained, “Let them be thrown into Africa and such like places.”
Another round of baking was ordered and this time the stuff came out half-baked. God again brooded and said, “Let them be thrown into Europe, America,Australia and such like places.”
In the third round, perfectly baked brown humans emerged from the oven and a contented Almighty exclaimed with joy, “Oh! Mere wala brown! Let them all be deservedly thrown into that part of the world comprising India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.
Take pride, O’ countrymen, in your being the browny race of the Almighty’s choice and stop being brown-sahibs.