India, Aug. 29 -- How bad is my face? Not great, apparently. I sat in Layan, in Thailand, staring at a high-tech machine with a doctor. The doctor took pictures of my face and the machine did the rest.

It looked for signs of sun damage and finally posted a visual in which I looked like I had a bad case of measles. The spots marked all the places where my skin had been damaged. Then, the device looked for 'hyperpigmentation' (I had no idea what that meant). The machine threw up another picture of me . This time, I looked like a leopard: My face had another array of spots.

The doctor looked surprised. That's very bad, he said. What kind of sunscreen did I use? I told him I never used any. And perhaps I should also change my moisturiser, h...