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by Padma Edirisinghe

Who says that Colour bar or apartheid (on the surmise that they mean the same) exists only in the West? I have been subjected to the scourge more here than in the west that I have had the occasional chance to visit.

The immediate catalyst for this piece is an interesting letter to the editor (maybe the Daily News) that I read where the writer had listed the latest reason for Sri Lankans developing an inferiority complex about themselves.

The other reasons as the notorious fame gained in recent times with our island of serendipity turning into a hotbed of terrorism with each community massacaring the other etc. etc, need not be reiterated. The latest psychological depressant according to the letter - writer is the ads on our TV that promise to make all dark humans fair. Once the lotions and creams are applied everybody becomes white. As a natural corollary the planetary positions or the Graha Chara determined by those luminous circles in the night skies, themselves change for the better. ("Grahaya maaru vela" the planetary position has changed is the joyful cry emitted).

Writes the correspondent, "as most Sri Lankans are dark that this sort of ad creates an inferiority complex in them". I totally agree since most of the viewers just cannot buy those sxpensive lotions and will have to go on inside the dark pockets that the creator gods as Maha Brahma put them in originally. So this is the latest colour bar technique cum mental depressant in our country.

Individually too it happens in unexpected places. I once walked into my bank (of the Ministry I worked in once) and there was a new Kakasa (peon) at the receipts counter. He, a shade less darker than me, gave me a stern disapproving stare as I walked in and as I hunted for cheque deposit forms kept a close watch as if they were 'Ran Path' and then said sternly (naturally in Sinhala) "Take one only" "Why should I take only one when I have four cheques to deposit?" I thundered and let off steam.

Just then walked in a white skinned European man and my tormentor cum local apartheid agent doubled into two, greeted him in perfect English and said "Good morning, Sir, what can I do for You?" "Can I meet the manager here? "he asked." Come, Sir, I will take you to the lady".

The bitterness caused by the discriminatory treatment rankled within Prathagjana (mundane) me the whole day. Contrast this with what I experienced in Columbus's America. When I got out of the airport years back, I think it was Washington DC or Baltimore a banner was flying outside.

It proclaimed 'Black is beautiful" that put me in high spirits. No. It was not put out for me, a non entity. It just happened to be a festive day of the Blacks.

An American lady descending from a hotch - potch of Scottish - Dutch - French and German ancestry named Hariet Douthurt was so "enamoured" of what she said was my rustic ways that she called kindly "unpretentious" that she was almost begging me to stay on. But that was the time when bombs in Lanka were bursting like Cheena patas every now and then and every night I had horrible dreams of my sons working in the city succumbing to a blast.

So I returned much before the visa expired at least to be on the spot of the tragedy., for my little wisdom told me that was I to be in my own country or outside that I was completely helpless against these machinations of the devils in human disguise. While in good old England always derided by us as expected of faithful colonists I had a happy shock when my name was announced as I was viewing the antique artifacts of the British Museum with almost oozing enthusiasm.

"Will Padma Edirisinghe of Sri Lanka come to the Security Room by the exit gate and fetch her camera and diary".

It was then that I realized the loss. I immediately went to the said room and there was the white officer holding out my longings. They had been found in the Egyptian section, he said smiling, probably left there as I gaped at the mummies.

"And here is your packet of sandwiches that I forgot to announce": he said grinning broadly. Unlike in the case of the Kakasa back home he seems to have had no distaste for my colour. The moral of my story is that I was not subject to a single instance of colour bar while in England. Everybody was kind to me or sorry for me, there.

The world I have been living is not that bad, I had, I had begun to conclude when the earth beneath me again shook with a very sour bit of news, titled "Black woman offered a white limb".

The piece reveals the strange news that the National Health Service of England has only pink - coloured artificial limbs. In fact doctors had told a black woman, one Ingrid Nicolls that she would have to pay 3000 pound if she wanted a prosthesis that matched her skin colour. Artificial limbs the doctors had told her come only in hues of pink.

Imagine this dark female going about with a pink coloured leg for the rest of her life. Our a saree, says the cynics, covers many "sins" as undeveloped breasts and protruding tummies. So if Nicolls was a saree clad Sri Lankan her pink leg could have been hidden but in England the frock reveals almost all.

A black woman with a pink leg! We have an analogy in Sri Lanka according to the earlier letter writer who says that once the use of the pigment changing lotion is suspended anything can happen to the skin colour. It can be a mix of black and white or it can be a beautiful multi hue. He also warns of spots appearing eventually. Imagine going about with a multi - coloured face embellished with spots too.

It is much better for the average person to be encouraged to live with content attuned to their god - given assets (provided they are not physically detrimental) than get them all frenzied over stuff that only makes the rich producers richer and the others just plunged into a state of confusion, their pockets empty and their faces, a gory presentation of mauve, blue and yellow and festooned with black and white spots.

Latest relevant bit of news I heard was that on internationally famed singer had his rose straightened via cosmetic surgery and his pigment changed from black to white. The latter transformation has now led to the eruption of a multitude of skin diseases while the nose is said to be slipping down and sown to gods only know where So another moral of this take is God given assets are the safest.

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