I have never been a fan of GAP. Have passed by its big windows with just a casual glance...never catching my attention.. never leering me in its embrace...
But a month back I passed it and I stopped... I stopped and stared at its window panes.. and then I decided to sit down in an empty chair opposite it, in the excessively crowded lobby of the mall.
It was beautiful... it touched my heart somehow.... filled it with..... pride? (I am not sure!)
I admired the desirable handsome man, his sharp features and the color of his skin..
But I have seen both more beautiful and more handsome...
What was different about this I wondered.
Well he was a turban clad bearded beautiful brown man, embraced in the hug of a white girl with tousled hair... her hands cupping his turban with one while the other rested on his open placket.
I saw a full blow window size image of this:
Now I am not a Sikh and I have never been a subject of any racial abuse or minority clashes over my years in US and Canada and still the ad stopped my steps and drew me towards it....
I am still trying to comprehend what it really made me feel? Did it make me feel proud, or noticed? or accepted? beautiful? all of it?
That day, I tiptoed into the GAP store... wandering around sheepishly feeling guilty and perhaps afraid of being seen!! I look around and around and around me and I stood straight, no longer afraid of been seen. The store was filled with Indian's and other brown minorities and they we were all there not to browse and shop...but in solidarity, in gratitude....and to be a part... to be a part of the change and to make <3>
Well done GAP!
But a month back I passed it and I stopped... I stopped and stared at its window panes.. and then I decided to sit down in an empty chair opposite it, in the excessively crowded lobby of the mall.
It was beautiful... it touched my heart somehow.... filled it with..... pride? (I am not sure!)
I admired the desirable handsome man, his sharp features and the color of his skin..
But I have seen both more beautiful and more handsome...
What was different about this I wondered.
Well he was a turban clad bearded beautiful brown man, embraced in the hug of a white girl with tousled hair... her hands cupping his turban with one while the other rested on his open placket.
I saw a full blow window size image of this:
Now I am not a Sikh and I have never been a subject of any racial abuse or minority clashes over my years in US and Canada and still the ad stopped my steps and drew me towards it....
I am still trying to comprehend what it really made me feel? Did it make me feel proud, or noticed? or accepted? beautiful? all of it?
That day, I tiptoed into the GAP store... wandering around sheepishly feeling guilty and perhaps afraid of being seen!! I look around and around and around me and I stood straight, no longer afraid of been seen. The store was filled with Indian's and other brown minorities and they we were all there not to browse and shop...but in solidarity, in gratitude....and to be a part... to be a part of the change and to make <3>
Well done GAP!
