a beautiful , clear-skinned sylph , chandy was blessed with long tresses of black keratin that showed only the slightest beauty parlor curl , and which framed an un-blemished face of pore-less wheatish color ( that oh-so-desirable skin-tone least likely to be associated with daughters of the lower caste , dark-skinned farm laborers , whose parents in rural india still needed to raise sizable dowries to secure husbands ) .