The Fourth Umpire: Fair and Ugly No More

I was in Bangalore for the last few days. I caught some cricket as the TV would be on all the time. No, this post is not really about cricket. This is about ‘Fair and Ugly err Lovely’ Fourth Umpire. As I saw the face of Charu Sharma and Srikant, I was waiting for the ‘fair and lovely’ and incredibly dumb about cricket, Roshini Chopra. My, I almost fell out of the chair! I saw a woman who looked very different from Mandira and Roshini types. I was waiting for her to open her mouth but somehow I never got around seeing her speak that day.

But now I am back home and my nephews put the TV to DD sport and I saw that dame again on the occasion of today’s Ahmedabad One Day Match between India and Sri Lanka. My curiosity was piqued and I started asking my nephews about her name. They told me she is a former Indian cricket team member and her name is Anjum something. Well, I searched the net and found her name and photo and she is Anjum Chopra and she is not so fair for a lovely change. And she is such a breath of fresh air on ‘Fair and Ugly’ Fourth Umpire.

I wonder how DD Sports managed to get her on board with a sponsorship from ‘Fair and Ugly!’ After all, according to the ad they used to show, the prerequisite for being on Fourth Umpire kind of shows was fair skin (and if you do not have it like me, you were doomed unless you acquired it by the use of this magic cream).

Now in a land obsessed with fair skin in women (see any Indian matrimonial, and it will be full of men seeking fair women) I find Anjum’s presence so refreshing and somewhat surprising too. I find Anjum charming in her own way and when she speaks about cricket, you feel like listening to her. But I wonder how this good sense prevailed over in this show?

As, I was about to complete this post I saw a new ‘Fair and Ugly’ ad, which shows a newly wed dark woman being shouted at by her husband and after she uses this ‘Ugly’ cream she becomes fair and her husband is completely bowled over by her. I find this ad so offensive and ugly.

Now that some good sense has prevailed over the Fourth Umpire Show, I wish they would chuck their sponsors. Or better still, those idiot sponsors may quit themselves now that they do not have their ugly mentality reflected on the show.

I also wonder what do men folk have to say about Fair and Handsom, a recently launched fairness cream for men. My dad (who is 63) says he never imagined that he would see in his lifetime water sold in bottles and a fairness product for men!