Beauty beyond colour: Journalist takes jibe on fixation with fairness

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 12

Mere kol oh sab kuch hai jo ikk buri aurat kol hona bohat hi jaroori hunda hai (I have all that it takes to be as wicked as they come…)

These verses from Nirupama Dutt’s noted poetry Buri Aurat gives an insight into colourism and stigmatisation of women with dark skin tones in our society. A sharp commentary on how a dark skin tone of women is associated with everything bad in our society, Nirupama Dutt’s peom was adapted as a short film Kaali Aurat in 2019. Sharing anecdotes from her early days as a young journalist in Chandigarh to confessing that she felt glad to be called a ‘black women’, a reference to her own skin tone, poet and writer Dutt participated in an online interaction hosted by Prabha Khaitan Foundation’s literary chapter Akhar.

“This was a peom written out of my own experience over the years being referred to as the Kaali Aurat due to the complexion of my skin. Usually, people still associate dark colour with bad omen. Similarly, it tags women who have dark skin tone with these references and I wanted to express my own experience. I am glad to be tagged as a Kaali Aurat in the context of a woman, who lives on her own terms and does as her heart pleases. I believe in not confining myself to the stereotypes of the society,” said Dutt.

The poem also brought up questions regarding the obsession with fairness, especially in case of women. “We even refer to women as the fairer sex, which is one of the evident ways of promoting colourism,” she said.

Dutt also shared her stories from her days as a young journalist. “I was never driven by ambition to succeed or attain power through political circles. I was content doing my own thing,” she said. She has been following her own advice for years now. She has also translated works of noted poets, including Gulzar and authored acclaimed literary work Ballad of Bant Singh, a memoir of revolutionary poet. She received prestigious Punjab Academy Award in 2000.