Fair and Lovely !! Really ?

Fair and Lovely !! Really ? 
 
I just read a week back that the skin whitening cream market size in India is now Rs 5000 cr … and that’s an enormous waste.

Where do we Indians get this fascination for fair / white skin ? From our supposed Aryan links ? From The British raj ? I really do not know… but I am just not able to understand this fixation. While I do not dislike fair skin, I definitely prefer the “original” wheatish/ dusky shades. Remember Smita Patil ? and Rekha ?

Fair and Lovely and similar products are actually creating a division in society.. fair Vs not fair.. and through clever advertising suggesting that the use of their fairness products leads to enhanced confidence, success, etc. All this complete nonsense but the irony is that they depend on the ingrained attitudes to skin colour in India.

Now what is galling is some of the most respected corporate names are doing this. Reputed MNCs and Indian companies are milking gullible young women. And this is also happening in Africa, Latin America, China, Pakistan and South East Asia

And the last nail in the coffin is fairness creams for men. !! Come on guys ..Rama, Krishna and Shiva ..were all dark.

Just for the record, the active chemical in all skin whitening creams removes skin pigmentation by bleaching and peeling. The worst of the lot can leave behind burn marks and cause skin cancer..

Have you ever wondered ..Cont’d

Have you ever wondered ..Cont’d Have you ever wondered why human babies are born after 9 months of gestation.. Not 8 or 7 or 10 or 11 ?

Ok, so there are two opposing forces in nature that determine the gestation period (for all mammal species, not just humans) . The first is that the longer the baby is inside the mother the stronger it becomes and has a better chance of survival in the outside world . Remember premature babies are born at 7 months and can also survive with medical care. So technically a baby has a chance of outside survival at 7 months but spends an extra 2 months inside the womb to improve its chances of survival.

The restriction to the length of the gestation period (i.e. beyond 9 months) comes from the size of the birth canal / uterine/ vaginal opening. The baby is continuously growing in the womb. If the baby is too big at the time of birth , there will problems for it to come out.

So 9 months appears to be the optimum. The baby is big enough to survive and the birth will not be dangerous for the mother.

There is another very interesting fact about human birth. As the baby travels down the birth canal, the head twists 90 degrees. So the nose is pointing to the shoulder. This is not seen in any other mammal species. Human babies have very large heads in comparison to other species… because humans also have the largest brain. This twist of the head is necessary for the large head to pass through the birth canal.

Have you ever wondered why...

Have you ever wondered?

Why we feel drowsy / sleepy when the aircraft takes off. ? Well, over a period of time I noticed that for the few minutes immediately after take off, I doze off. Then I checked this with a number of other people. And most, but not all, said they have also had the same experience. Then I googled a bit and presto!! found the reason. Immediately after take-off, the aircraft goes into a steep climb. This causes the blood to temporarily partially drain out of the brain and move to the lower part of the body…and hence the short sleep. After a few minutes, as the aircraft reaches its normal flying height and levels off , the blood flows back to the brain waking us up. Pilots of fighter planes and astronauts go through the same experience, though in a more severe way. Short black-outs are common.

Why condoms are marketed in fruit flavors? Well it’s nothing to do with taste at all. So why the flavors? It is because condoms are made of natural rubber and natural rubber has a slightly unpleasant smell. In order to mask that unpleasant smell, condom manufactures use fruit flavors like banana and strawberry. So why not mango or papaya? Because Banana and strawberry have obvious sexual linkages which mango and papaya do not have.

Why after a sleep/ nap we feel refreshed only after washing the face. There are two reasons. First during sleep/ nap, blood circulation to outer surface of the body reduces. This causes the slight feeling of numbness in the face. While washing the face, we also massage the face and that restores circulation making us feel refreshed. Second, and this is more specific to full length sleep rather than a nap, the natural secretion of oil from facial skin blocks the skin pores, thus preventing the skin from “breathing”. Washing the face removes this film of oil and we feel refreshed.