Tall or Short?  Thin or Fat?  Young or Old?  Dark or Fair?  Abled or Disabled?
 
The thing is that our appearance is how people percieve us, but we all know deep doen inside that no matter what our external appearances are, we are people like anyone else - we feel joy, pain, sorrow, sadness, the whole range of universal human emotions. Also we have similar aspirations and fears. So why is our world-view of people who may look or be different so skewed?

Attitudes are changing slowly but surely. However, the pace is not fast enough. Luckily there are some wonderful books being published these days that highlights the point that underneath their colour or looks or abilities, people are the same everywhere in the whole, wide world!

A big shout-out to all the amazing publishers for tackling this very difficult subject.

A few of the books that come to my mind are:
Apoorva's Fat Diary (DC Mango) is about Apoorva who is struggling with her weight, but in no way is she struggling with low self-esteen. Hooray for Nandini Nayar for writing this book.

Brown like Dosas, Samosas and Sticky Chikki (Fun OK Please) tackles the bias of fair vs dark.  is being tempted to change her skin colour and become fair but she is adamantly refuses for she is happy being as brown as a samosa.

A Tsunami Called Nani  (DC Mango) and Ninja Nani series (Duckbill) deal with the image that we have of how older people look, behave and think. Both these delightful books shatters the image of staid grandmotherhood!

And finally, the sticky issue of abled vs disabled. Catch that Cat (Tulika) depicts Dip Dip taking off to help find her friend's cat, although some would gasp with horror as she whizzes by on her wheelchair.

Neel on Wheels, (Duckbill) too, has a similar theme. Older brother Neel is perceived by his younger brother as a superhero who can dipel all the demons that live in his imagination. 

A delightful smorgasbord of books on a very difficult to articulate subject!