Colours of my life

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ” 

― Oscar Wilde

What is life if not a spectrum of colours... Colours that define it, colours that fill it and colours that make it "picture perfect"

 For different people colour means different things... For the little ones all around us colours are their first lesson of association and identification, on which they are tested by all Uncles, Aunties and Didis round the clock.- "Tuktuk, want this icecream... but first tell what color it is?" or "Laddo, go get Uncle the Red box"

To a teenager, on the cusp of falling in love..."Roses are Red, Violets are Blue"

For the old lady you meet in the park every morning, doing "anulom vilom" , white is her colour..the colour of divinity.

For me the colours define the people in my life, people who fill my life with their presence, their vibrancy, their variety, their characteristics and their expressions. Rather I should say, those colours define me.

It has always been a challenge for me to give introductions... whether on the first day of college, or in a "informal" intro to the seniors, or in the ice breaking  of those boring training sessions, or in interviews... each time I was asked to define myself, my likes, my dislikes, my dreams, so on and so forth... But are we really an island in ourselves better known by only two coordinates, coordinates that define us in isolation. I have always failed to believe in this and hence always failed in giving straight from heart and complete introductions in my life.

So here I attempt an introduction about myself for the first time in its true sense. I am nothing without the people in my life, the people who make me realize that I am. Come to think of it, how do you know you exist... because you take in a chemical element O₂ inside to give a compound  CO_2, or because you see yourself in the eyes of the people around you. Well! its a no brainer, all of us know the answer.  "They are so you are". So here I will showcase the colours of my life, what they make me and what I make out of them.

Brown is the colour which marks my identity. It is the colour of my mother. She gives me the earth and the ground to hold on to. My roots, my beliefs, my values all I got from her. Brown is the colour of soil that reaps flowers, cactus and fruits with equal care and nurture...thats what my mother does too. My imperfections, my follies, my mistake all take shelter in the never ending fields of her pastures. I learnt to stand tall from her.

Orange is the colour that keeps me warm and hopeful. That is the colour of my father. All I know of hope, optimism, cheer, glee, joy all I owe to this man. His life was difficult(Well ..who's isnt) but did I ever see him droop in sadness..never once. He is the balancer of my world, who brings with him the strength and the disposition which can give any trouble a run for its money. I learnt to live (in its real sense) from him.

Pink  is the colour that brought love in my life. It is the colour of my two brothers. Yes, they are the ones who made me realize what "Love" is. My first encounter with a selfless unconditional love happened by design (of God) with the twin angels of my life. Yes! God felt one would not be enough for me, so he showered me with two at one go. But his strange ways...gives some - takes some. He sent them without a voice to this world. But you know what, they came with a note in their palms which read .. "Your voice I already sent in advance one year back- Love God". Ever since that day, it has been an unbreakable bond between the three of us. They bring sensitivity, friendship and love to my life. I learnt to love from them.


Yellow  is the colour for all the beautiful people in my life whom I bumped into by accident, by chance and not be design. This is for all my friends, the ones really really close to me. Names are not important, they never are.. the ones for whom I write this, will know when they read it. That's the thing about friends.. you never need words and at the same time you never fall short of words. There is so much you can tell them, you can listen from them..everything need not make sense too. And in those critical ICU moments of your life, when words fail, they never fail you. Yellow is their colour because they bring sunshine, they smile and the world looks better, they brighten things up and clean up the "shit" in your life..that's why colour yellow. I learnt to smile from them.

So that pretty much sums up my spectrum.. that is what I am ..a myriad of colours that mix with people and people that mix with colours. Its confusing and thats why its beautiful!!!

ps - So what do you think is my colour?? :)