For as long as I can remember, on the bathroom counter, right next to my dad’s hair gels and my mom’s perfumes, there has always been a white and pink bottle of something called “Fair and Lovely”. On the front of the bottle, a smiling fair-skinned girl stands…

My mother later told me that in Pakistan, there’s a superstition that the less milk you put in your tea—the darker your tea is—the darker your skin will become.