It was exactly one month ago today that I returned from India. It has been a crazy month of working and partying that has gone through many hairstyle and job applications. I remembered that it was a month today while showering, so I busted out the Fa Vanilla Honey Creme Bodywash that I bought my first day in Delhi. I had forgotten to pack my Whole Foods shower gel so I had to improvise with something bought there. It is a soap free moisturizing body wash which smelled as manly as possible as the pharmacy in Pahar Ganj didn’t seem to carry anything but womens soaps and variations of “fair and lovely” (a terrible product that is meant to make you pailer skinned and therefore more beautiful - the opposite of our goal in the west).
Buying a new scented product whilst on vacation is a good thing to do for your return home. It is a trick that I have known from previous trips, having bought a new aftershave in Duty Free on my 2006 trip with Amanda, and also having forgotten to pack shampoo on my first trip to Asia in 1998. They say that the sense of smell has the strongest memories attached to it, and today in the shower was no different. Amanda always says “ooh India” when I wear the Issey Miyake Bleue, although it probably often sounds more like “eeerrrgh, India.”
Here is an unbelievable advertisement that is telling the average Indian that the lighter the skin, the greater their success in life. I love how the commercial has the mix of Hindi and English. The use of English is still widely associated with wealth and class in India. However this product still needs to sell to the normal Indian who at most only speaks a little English.
And not just limited to women. Here is the mens version with added motorbikes and a red carpet.
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