The world in colour

Generally, I am known as a person who loves the dull grays and browns, but black is my favourite (colour) when it comes to cars (had to settle for a silver though), clothes (have at least four black pants at any given point of time), sundry electronic items (have a blue laptop, however), and background for charts, presentations & so on that I make at work or with the kid. The maximum I am willing to deviate in case of pants is to gray (rarely) and brown (occasionally). Silver is acceptable in electronic items, as they are usually cheaper than the black version. But no, before you ask, I have not seen the movie BLACK, and don’t think much of Michael Jackson’s album Black or White, don’t own a blackberry, and am no black-belt in Karate. Still, I insist, black is everything – slimming (most importantly); casual and formal; so on.

Of course I do wear bright-coloured shirts (usually different shades of maroon), and even go so far as to have flowers on some of the kurtis, but they are usually given to me by my mom, sis or mother-in-law and have little or nothing to do with my own preference. You place a black and any-other-coloured-thing in front of me, and I am likely to pick black. In the absence of black, I will pick gray. In the absence of gray, and also of dull brown, I will accept other things. That is the procedure.

It happened a few months ago. Although I never stopped to clarify, this was when the Mumbai autowallahs collectively decided to go in for a vehicle make-over, probably to make the city a brighter place, but most likely, in order to lift up my spirits. In the aftermath of all the crap that has happened to this city in the past few years, it is particularly appropriate that the bright spots are painted by the ubiquitous (at least in our suburbs) autorickshaws.

Inspired by the autorickshaws - the purple one (with ‘Rohit’ written in the back; my nephew being Rohit, & the purple being kind of Bertie-Wooster-Socks bright, this one is a favourite); the green, the orange, the red, the blue-and-white gingham print reminding me of Dorothy’s dress, but most especially the hot pink, I have started seeing colours! So this year-

* I will wear my pink salwar kameez with aplomb
* Buy a not-black umbrella
* Release all the coloured hair bands from the back of the closet
* Wear nail-polish (well, maybe not)
* Let myself FLY

When most depressed, look out of window at our colourful autos, they are bound to bring a smile to your lips.