[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are times when we use various colours to describe our very own moods. Even in journalism, the usage is not spared. For instance, a bad day is described, or headlined, as Black Day” or “Black Friday” or even “Black September”, and important dates as” Red Letter” days and so on to describe some unfortunate incident that affects everyone directly or indirectly.
From this it follows that we are to teach our children as to connect colours with certain ideas—and values. The colour of anything indicates its significance. So colours get involved in the very essence of the languages concerned. Blue, the colour of the sky on a bright day is also used to envisage a sad or dismal day. And so in the language to feel blue or have the blues indicate something more or less on the negative side of the scale. And there are songs to this effect.In music, black does not mean dark colour. It means something solid and emphatic in what is described as “in black and white” meaning what is written or printed. And this is one feature that no one can avoid by simply saying “but I was misquoted!” But “Black is Black” as the song by the Jetliners of Sri Lanka goes on to say “I want my baby back. What shall I do cause I am feeling blue?”
To see red implies losing one’s temper or getting wild over something that someone has said or written in connection with you. It is a danger signal such that even there are sign posts attached to electrical transformers warning of dangers because the equipments have a voltage capacity of say, for instance, 4,000 volts, thus warning us not to touch them.
Saffron colour is associated with the Hindu culture. That is why adherents of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are more often than not, described as the “Saffron Brigade”—thank God they are yet promoted to the level of a Division as in military terms!
Yellow is supposed to be an attractive colour and many fine things are associated with it, not the least being the colour of some species of flowers. Someone lacking in guts is described as being yellow, or yellow livered (although livers of any source are among delicacies in all cultures of the world).
To be white is to denote clean-heartedness. And this description had been monopolized by the white-skinned races as their God-given blessing although today the idea is much disputed in this world of global villages. To be brown is to indicate like sitting on the fence and to mix yellow and blue will give you green colour in any situation including the procedures of the printing press. By the way, only four colours are used as the basics in any offset printing press. These are red (magenta), blue, yellow and black and the various combinations and permutations can bring out the various colours required.
Like this, every colour has a meaning and associations with something or the other in folk tales or most other things in every day life. What is currently very important is the colour green which implies its importance in the scheme of human survival.
Perhaps, our State could take a leaf from Sikkim which has been declared India’s greenest state with 47 per cent of its land being forested. Unfortunately our Naga brethren are yet to be inculcated with the values of green revolution as we are sadly demolishing our green heritage, forgetting that the cleanest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.
