Jack Daniels diluted with three cubes of ice; “On the rocks” he called it. With a swagger, a long draw of the midway burnt Rothmans Mild, the MBA of two years announced “Its nothing but a placebo; What frikkin geniuses of us to build a brand around that!”. Thumping of backs, laughter and long puffs of
the Rothmans Mild ensue.
Far away from that cocktail circuit, in a land where rains had failed for three seasons in a row, and the parched cakes of soil made farming untenable, she took a rupee coin and put it into the earthen box.
She counted the five days of manual labour, carrying crushed rocks on her head and walking bare foot on blazing earth.
“Ten more days and I can buy a tube of ‘Fair and Lovelier’; the next boy shall not say that the girl was too dark to interest him!”
Sathyanarayanan Chandrasekar, whom you would remember as a coding monkey , frustrated with the state of Bangalore roads; these days is an aspiring MBA. This article is about the addiction in India, to the desire for fair skin and its corresponding exploitation in the marriage market. This article is also about the genius of MBAs to find new markets and innovative ways to sell fairness products amongst the poor in the rural hinterland of the country. One prominent ‘management guru’, had even given it a name… “Fortune at the base of the pyramid”. The author blogs at http://kaisertalk.in
This was an entry I sent to the six sentences blog…didnt get published…hence posting it here. Six Sentences Blog is a novel attempt at exploring literature within Six Sentences… You can read it here.
