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UK
Asian Voice - Saturday 31st March 2012
f ashionista
by Debasree Ghosh
Be a Fashionista, Be You! If you have any questions or a story or a new style to share with us, please write to Shree at aveditorial@abplgroup.com
Unfair Game On my recent trip to the motherland, surviving through endless airports and aloo parathas, I happened to pick up the Indian editions of Vogue, followed by a few other fashion mags. What leaped out at me from the glossiness that is so incongruous with the dust of India, is the wide acceptance of Bollywood heroines as models (baffles me!) and pages after pages of fairness cream adverts extolling the virtue of white skin in a nation of brown folks. It was an experience akin to being pelted with iced water while sunbathing on a white sand beach. And I say this, because this stuff is personal to me. Let me elaborate. I was born to a pair of Bengalis, a generally light skinned community thanks to genetic makeup and aversion to outdoor activities. However ,as far as appearances go, my parents could not be more different from each other; my mum is the archetypal fair skinned, long haired, doe eyed Indian woman and my legend of a father being the proud owner of curly hair and glossy skin the colour of night sky. I, the result of this union, went the middle route and was gifted with a skintone that is not exactly dark, but quite far from the fair and lovely ideal that rules India. I wasn’t really aware of my skin or anyone else’s until one Diwali when I was
Priyanka Chopra
around ten years of age, my aunt commented, given my nice facial features how beautiful I would have been had I inherited my mother’s creamy complexion. That was the first of many. For the next ten years, I would be bombed from all sides, in regretful hushed tones or loud backhanded compliments, statements and comments implicating I was somehow not desirable enough or complete enough because of not having a face that glows like the moon. Then I got the hell out of India, got European classmates, European colleagues, European friends followed by a European
Rani Mukherjee
fiancé, all of whom at one time or another expressed appreciation for my golden brown Mac nc43 skin sans any effort at tanning. I am not alone. Being a country that it is of subtropical climate and brown people, many of my peers have faced similar treatment from society, even their own families. I have friends whose deluded ex-boyfriends had left them because their mothers wanted strictly ‘fair’ bahus. I have university educated cousins who after years of resistance, fallen victim to snide remarks and gone and bought a tub of Garnier Light cream. I have schoolmates who have met me after years and while giving me the happy news of their wed-
which enhances breathing and develops benefits the whole body. This done daily prevents many illnesses and keeps energy levels high throughout the day. An event thoroughly enjoyed by all ages from 2
by Rani Singh
Special Assignments Editor
Zachary Latif, 27 Zachary Latif, is Portfolio Manager with TLG Capital, specializing in frontier markets and fixed income. The youngest of three brothers, all of whom studied the same degree in the same year at the same location after sharing itinerant identical schooling, Zach ary commenced his undergraduate degree at Westminster Business School aged 14. He completed his O levels and A levels at 12 and 14 respectively. He undertook his Masters in banking and international finance at Cass Business School aged 18. Zachary joined Dresdner Kleinwort as a trader before being head-hunted for the credit desk at Nomura International, followed by proprietary credit trading at TD Securities.
Kajol
ding, have said things like, ‘he is so wonderful, and despite being dark, so handsome’. As if beauty and brown skin are mutually exclusive. In a word, it’s humiliating. Intensely so. As a society, we are guilty of marginalising the majority, sowing the seeds of self-hatred in our young and making way for a future inhabited by self-loathing Indians who think they are inferior to their whiter couterparts and worse, Caucasian people For those who are blind, so to speak, let me make it clear, it’s prejudice driven racism. It’s no better than dowry system, honour killing, condoning untouchability, and, a gang of white-trash teenagers yelling racial abuse at any of us. It’s the same thing. Wake up, India. Colonial hangover, caste system, socio economic structure, there is a slew of reasons all entangled with each other behind this obsession with fair skin. But whatever it is, it’s beyond time that we stop “looking for fair, slim and tall professional for fair, slim and homely girl (age: 24) “, have Caucasian-looking Bollywood heroines making it to the top in spite of zero acting skills (Refer Katrina Kaif), ignore Freida Pinto because well, she is not a gori chitti. Self-respect is the greatest gift we can give our children. Let’s start working on that.
Yoga in the Park Hyde Park was energised with over 70 people doing Yoga on Sunday 25 February 2012. An initiative inspired by HSS UK during their promotion of Health Awareness month, a Facebook event was launched to encourage all to participate in Yoga in the Park. Various types of Yoga postures were displayed and all participated in a Yoga routine called ‘Surya Namaskar’, meaning salutations to the Sun. Surya Namaskar is a holistic sequence of yoga postures
Leading Lights
to 60 years old and watched my many passers by in Hyde Park. A total of 700 Surya Namaskars were completed on the day. Keep a look out on FB for the next event. ! ... Further information go to www.hssuk.org/sny.
Q Tell me about your parents. A: My parents are forward-thinking and adaptable; they’ve always hungered for the next challenge. I’ve inherited from them a very peripatetic lifestyle; a lot of travel which had a profound impact on my life. Both of them espouse pragmatic solutions by reframing challenges into an opportunity, an attitude I admire. Q What educational principles were you brought up with? A: My father was a huge believer in the Classical style of learning and he implemented the Socratic method with us; we learnt through inquiry, questioning and pursuing knowledge for its own sake rather than following a curriculum. We were tutored by our parents, and others when needed, but we also used to socialize and do sport for a balanced upbringing. Q How did the home schooling concept arise? A: One time, when my family was going up north on a train, my father started to teach my eldest brother algebra. He realized that my middle brother and I were also picking up the concepts, and so this evolved into the three of us being home-schooled. Q Were you treated equally growing up, and are you competitive with your siblings? A: We are very close, both my brothers have sons (no girls yet) and we live as a close-knit unit. We were taught to blend a modern and progressive outlook with respect for
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certain traditions. I am a strong believer in “coopetition”; we encourage each other to do better and set benchmarks. I find that the “competitive” spirit doesn’t suit our modern world where we need to overcome our challenges by working together and go beyond our individual egos. For us it’s not only about emerging as strong individuals in our own right but also about learning how to work in different types of teams; whether at home, at work, or on the playground.
“I believe in all of us putting our common humanity at the forefront of our efforts.” Q What values do you hold? A: Two of my core tenets are that “work is worship” and to serve mankind. I believe in all of us putting our common humanity at the forefront of our efforts. It’s why I do what I do and provides a context to my professional life. Q So how are you implementing this ethical dimension in your work? A: TLG Capital is among the forefront in frontier market investing in places like Sub Saharan Africa, the Subcontinent and South East Asia; bringing knowledge and expertise from more advanced markets, and investing in frontier markets. A global rebalancing and redistribution of
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Zachary Latif
wealth is exciting and an opportunity for entrepreneurs. Our focus on maturing new and existing indigenous businesses will do more for the development of these nations than any other measure. Another example has been to invest and be involved in the restructuring of bankrupt companies like Lehman brothers and sovereign nations like Iceland. A key part of the global recovery will be to rehabilitate distressed assets. I’ve focused much effort in that area, since once we have lifted that fog, we can go back to a brisker rate of global economic growth. Q Give me an example of a pioneering concept you have introduced into a frontier country. A: QCIL is the only one of its kind in Sub Saharan Africa; an African pharmaceutical facility that’s producing lifesaving antiretroviral and malarial drugs. It’s an African solution to an African problem and it’s the sort of investment I’m proud to be actively involved with. It’s also a commercially viable way of bringing in and speeding up development. When dealing with innovative and bold entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and countries, it’s interesting to see that the most assistance they require is guidance on how to navigate the capital markets globally. There are many good projects out there like Soy Products being developed in North Africa and Agri-farming in Southern Africa. It’s encouraging that that world unites in business and a vision for a better and progressive future.