Chak De India has won Shah Rukh Khan acclaim as possibly his best performance and elevated him to the status of a national hero — almost. Does he need to promote Fair and Handsome cream to further enhance his standing? When the reigning star of Hindi cinema publicly endorses a cream that openly advocates fairness, lightness of skin as desirable nay, necessary, it is a damn bad show. How could he do it? According to one account in The Hindustan Times’ Brunch, Shah Rukh took eight months to agree to brand F&H with his fair (!) name. What overcame his scruples? Money?

Money or no money, he has just reinforced one of the most reprehensible social stigmas in Indian society, one that discriminates on the basis of colour. And no amount of subterfuge or obfuscation can change this: fairness creams, despite claims they are nourishing for healthy, glowing skin, are all about making money and dark people fairer, lighter, paler or whatever other euphemism you prefer. It makes one very angry: grrrrrrr. C’mon, Shah Rukh, chuck the ad.

As we celebrate India’s unity in diversity with Chak De’s Team India, spare a hurrah for TV singing contests. As Sunday Express highlighted, both have a cast of actors and singers from far-flung parts of India. The Northeast is making (sound) waves. After Assam’s

Debojit won Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, we now have Amit Paul from Shillong, Prashant Tamang, Darjeeling, Nirupama Dey, Agartala, who could end up winning Indian Idol 3 (Sony) or Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (Zee).

Alongwith Star Voice of India (Star Plus), these shows have made an enormous effort to stage talent from across the country. So there is Sikkim’s Meiyang Chang on Idol 3, contestants from

Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and of course Pakistan; from Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jabalpur, Indore and so many from Kolkata you’d think this was a Rabindra Sangeet contest. There’s Emon, Ankita, Abhilasha, Harpreet, Arshpreet, Mohammed, Raja Hasan,

Mirande ... and many others, irrespective of class, creed, colour, religion or gender, singing Hindi films songs and folk ditties — anything to become a voice of India.

This reflects our diversity. Not sure about the unity. Evidently, sms voters decide on regional lines. Hence, Debojit had the backing of the Assamese (apparently ULFA backed him, too), now all political parties of Mizoram have asked the people of the state to vote for Paul. Contestants ask for votes on this basis.

Thus cities are pitted against each other, states face-off and languages fight it out. The judges are so busy squabbling amongst themselves they ignore these differences, thank God. Is it a divisive trend? Yes, if you think regional parties, ideological parties, caste-based parties are divisive. No, if you remember that many games are played along the same divide — our cricket tourneys pit Mumbai against Delhi, Karnataka against Bengal and North Zone against South Zone.