Colours

What are colours? What the definition, in lay mans terms, of a colour? What does colour mean? Infants might know the answer to that question a lot better than others.

The farthest I can remember anything in my learning life, is me arriving to school late in kindergarten. I (sadly) cant remember anything being learnt or taught. I cant remember the rush I felt when I first dipped my tiny juvenile hands in acrylic paint. I can only imagine…

Most toddlers feel a supreme joy when they come home from school and announce with pride that they finger-painted a house, or jungle-cat. I remember scenes from my early childhood, when I used to run around playing with firecrackers in Diwali week. The most memorable visions were the ones at night. We used to decorate the house with oil-diyas, and at night, we’d turn the electric lights off. The effect, was mesmerizing.

Speaking of Diwali, today is Diwali. The Indian festival of colours. A very beautiful time of the year, in which no house is left undecorated with colourful lights and oil-diyas. Its time of celebration (of what, exactly, I’m not sure, I was never one to indulge in Hindu Mythology).

Diwali means so much to so many people. For many, it’s a week-long escape from boring office routines, a time to get together, laugh, and enjoy. Most Indians, associate colour, with happiness. Diwali is a standing testament. For example, the bridal dress is bright or bold red (red commonly is refered to as the colour of love and passion).

Colours fill up the life of most Indians with happiness.

Me, or people like me, might be a different matter. I don’t necessarily associate colours with happiness. I (personally) like to be in dark or dimly lit areas. Too much bright light hurts my eyes. (I always keep the curtains drawn in the room).
Thought, certain colours, or images rather, flood my heart with emotion of pure joy and happiness. Images of seeing my cousins and best friends back in Mumbai, or playing guitar at home loudly. Not many of these are very colourful events (my guitar is simply white and black!). Yet the arrangement of such colours stimulates me like no other could.

I watch movies. Lots of them. In most cases, the post-production team goes ever the entire recordings and “photoshop” each and every frame, just to portray the mood of scene more effectively. If the protagonist is feeling lonely, you can be sure the background is dark gloomy, and there’s heavy rain slapping on the windows. Many movie-goers don’t realize this.

Colours, are a very integral part of our lives. They existed before we even knew what existence is. They existed before us (humans). Imagine what it’d be like to see the first humans discover fire, or discover colour, or assign a colour to something (red for danger, a a combination of colours to represent their own clan). Colours, formed the cornerstone of our evolution!

Today, when we go to buy phones for example, the iPhone. It used to be available in two colours, black and white. The white, had a greater asthetic appeal. It simply looked more Apple-like. Immediately, on the first day of sale, the white ones were sold out. It goes to say, colours are so important in our lives, we can even be fussy about it.

I have a Windows 7 laptop. One of its amazing features is the new Aero Theme. It carries a lot of visual appeal. I’m very fussy about the theme colours. I hate it if the colour is even slightly out of tone. Right now, I’m typing this on Office Word. The background of the theme is blue, its calm, and very soothing (especially with the brightness of the LCD Screen set on low).

To come to think of it, Colours, is a very interesting topic. Its not something people think about or meditate from time to time. Most people wouldn’t even care about the importance of colours. They would still know colours existed, but would sub-consciously or unconsciously keep it at the back of their minds.
Just Imagine, for one minute. Life without colours. Photography would collapse, for one thing. When you wake up the morning, no more brightly light phone screens screaming your alarms. No more colour themes to decorate rooms and houses. No more colourful videos. No more traffic signals. No more road lane markers. No more indicator lights. Scary, isn’t it? Its only scary because we are used to colours. We use them too much. We are dependent on them.

I need to go put up more lights for Diwali now. I’ll make sure , that there are more oil-diyas in my room this time.