BLACK IS ALSO BEAUTIFUL!!!

BLACK IS ALSO BEAUTIFUL!!!

BLACK IS BOUNTIFUL 

 "IN  NO COUNTRY I AM BLACK. THEN WHY CALL ME BLACK MONEY?"

 

 " WE ARE THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL EVILS, WHAT RUBBISH!"

The other day (may be some months back) I read an article titled as above, by Mr. Jug Suraiya. He goes on to tell us how we, Indians, by and large, have aversion (I am an exception, I am not averse to) to anything dark. Be it sugar, flour or skin complexion, dark is out and white is in and the whiter the better. The exception to this colour- coded scheme of things, he adds, is money.  Indians, or at least some of us, he says, have distinct preference for so- called ‘black’ money. He then goes on to tell us how India remains a poor country while its wealth is stashed away abroad in accommodative places like Switzerland and the Cayman Island, which call themselves ‘tax havens’, a euphemism for the banking system (as he puts it) that  turns a blind eye to the sources of clandestine riches. He says Indians have more undeclared booty hidden away in secret accounts than all the rest of the world combined and quotes some statistical data according to which if this wealth stashed abroad were to be brought back to India our foreign debt would out some 13 times over, and there would still be some left- overs. Unfortunately for us (common citizens, honest tax payers, like you and me), there is no political will to do what obviously needs to be done or is it the fear of consequences?

I wish to divert myself a bit from this serious issue of black money (of course, which I don’t have, any way or wasn’t capable of making any, for that matter), but do wish to continue to on the subject matter of this article, may be in a lighter vein. No I do not fall into the category of those few Indians (class which includes politicians, business magnets, film personalities and sport celebrities), who have wealth hidden away in tax havens. Being a salaried person, I automatically became honest tax payer- hence an honest common man! But I am one of those Indians, who have no aversion to anything dark or black. Black is what I love, though I haven’t any black money (as I said before) I even drink black tea (with no sugar at that) these days. Of all the whiskeys that I have gulped down, I consider Black Label as the best. I remember a song, which went this way ‘Black is black, I want my baby back’ and as a child I loved that song. I was fascinated by the movie Black. My mobile too is black (not Black Berry but simple user friendly Nokia one). We have two black L.G. T.V. sets, black cooker and n number of black utensils (including non – stick ones) at home. Black here, black there and black everywhere! So, you see Black is indeed bountiful with us. And it would fair to say that I love all those people, who may not be fair outwardly, and may have darkest of complexion yet posses that inner beauty which oozes out from their pure heart. Black is also beautiful!

                                                                    ___ VINAY TRILOKEKAR