When we returned to Kathmandu the day before yesterday I asked my driver, Shyam, if Alisha looked much different. I expected a comment about her size, weight, or demeanour but instead he chose to remark on her having lighter skin. He then called her a "Gori" (a not entirely flattering nickname for a white person) and had a good cackle to himself.
Skin colour is high on the agenda in Nepal in inter-personal relationships, with light skin being seen as more beautiful or denoting higher status. That is one reason why light-skinned Nepali girls are sought after as exhibits inside the Indian circuses. It is also why there is such a plethora of cosmetic skin-lightening products available on the market going by very sad and antiquated names such as "Fair and Lovely". And it explains the delight of one of our children who we transferred a couple of years ago from one of our children's refuges in the south of Nepal (where it is hot and sunny) to our refuge in Kathmandu; within a few months her skin colour had lightened by a couple of shades and she had become less vulnerable to teasing and snide remarks about her complexion.
As per other things I expect it will take quite some time for attitudes to skin colour in Nepal to catch up with those in the developed world. When the significance of skin colour and for that matter genetically acquired status are consigned to become part of the nation's "darker" history, the country will be so much the better for it.
