Sixty Not Just A Number

If I don’t speak up you’ll never know about Gora Chand. I’ve known him for years and it was last month, he was relieved of his services from government job. After he celebrated his sixtieth birthday, he looked relaxed and happy -- no more everyday office going, no more of carrying lunch box, no time to be spent in traffic jams while driving to office, no necessity to rise early but laze in bed till late, and spend the day as he liked.

I found Gora Chand was getting busy, both in the morning and evening. He looked happy and cheerful spending time somewhere…I couldn’t know till the day came. That evening I had gone to the neighbourhood theatre hall to see a play. And there was Gora Chand playing an important role. He looked very fair and handsome and I wouldn’t have recognised him but for his vocal sound.

Let me tell you a secret about Gora Chand. Gora Chand means the Fair Moon. I still can’t believe who had given him that name those sixty years back. He was also unhappy with his name for he was nowhere near fair; instead he had a very dark skin colour.

There were many rumours about Gora, and, all this came from his family member. His youngest cousin brother was the one who gossiped a lot about his Gorada (da a way of addressing an elder brother). He told his friends how Gorada made efforts and attempts to change his complexion since he was a young boy. Being the friend of this cousin, here I’ll make true confessions of what I’d heard from him without taking an oath.
When Gora was a child, his granny had once told him, “Gora if you drink a lot of milk your complexion will become white”. She said this as he always spilt the glass of milk that was given to him as a regular healthy drink. And Gora drank as much milk he could, but with no results even after a month. So he stopped drinking milk and till today he hates milk.

The women and girls in his family applied haldi (turmeric) paste on their hands and faces before going for bath. The turmeric paste is said to make the skin look fairer and keep it clean. Gora, entering his teen years had heard about the magic of this and secretly applied it on his face. This too did not yield any result.

His next attempt for fairness was much later. Having passed his college days and with a good job in hand Gora was again lured into “The Fair World” when he saw advertisements of Fairness Creams. He could not stay back and applied the cream as per the instruction. This too did not show any magic in Gora’s life.

Being fed up, Gora never again tried any method or way to become fair. That day on the stage when I saw Gora I was taken by surprise. He looked so fair, and this time it was the magic of the paints used by the make-up man that gave Gora the colour to his face which he had wanted for so many years.

Maybe this time Gora Chand must have been happy to see the fair face in the mirror. Only Gora Chand can tell the truth.