Sunday, January 11, 2009

Have a colour-full life (Wk #02)

@ReelNReal

Was wondering why the side walls of the railway tracks (of Mumbai locals) are painted in maroon. Similarly the lower portion of train coaches. Came the answer when I saw the lower portion of a bridge being coloured naturally in maroon color thanks to the beings called human. Yes, welcome to India, the land of Pan-lovers.

Colours! Some people claim content is more important the colour. Yes, absolutely! What matters is how good the tea is than the colour of the cup. Still, one can't defy the importance of colours in our life - Many a times, colours become the content. As we know, colours have 2 angle to it - scientific and emotional.

The science of colours is really amazing. Different colours have different properties (such as frequency) that helped scientists to make many discoveries - e.g. to guess the composition of a galaxy or planet by analyzing the missing colour (which ought to be absorbed its atmosphere) of the spectrum. The reason why an object is red is a bit counter-intuitive: It's red because it contains all colours except red (To be scientifically right: It absorbs ALL the other colours and reflects red) - So, next time when a person reflects "good deeds", don't just blindly go by that :P. The industry which has benefited hugely from the scientific improvements of colours is entertainment - from B&W movies to stunning colourful movies - makes one believe that it's worth spending 250 bucks for a single movie.

But what makes colours more appealing to everyone is the emotional angle. We know of wars in the past due to skin colour and still the differences are not completely rooted out. Colours have the power to emote different feelings in us. It could be different for different people - age, sex and culture could play major role. A kid chooses jazzy colours - lemon yellow frocks, pink gowns, bright blue pants - I have seen Moms telling to kids "no, it's not a nice colour" - who defines 'Nice', I would say. Men get embarrassed when associated with pink. Some people have a strong preference / liking for a colour that they would invariably use it for everything - Blue shirt, blue bag, blue desktop theme etc. Some people go with what general public likes - what others feel beautiful, stylish and appealing. A mix of the 2 extremes would be good.

Different colours stand for different purposes. "Go Green" is the mantra for environmentalists. White stands for peace. Black stands for expressing opposition / condolences. Red stands for passion. Yellow stands for New/bright. Blue stands for cool. This reflects in how people want to paint their houses, offices and commercial complexes.

Another interesting area where colours are heavily analyzed is products and branding. Marketers ask this question frequently 'Shall I change the colour my product to improve sales?' Advertisers want to register in consumers' mind through colours. Red is coke and Blue is pepsi - marketers have succeeded in registering this in people's mind. You and I won't believe how much companies are spending on getting the colours right for their logo and branding.

With so much beauty being evoked through colours, it's definitely worth to wish a person "Have a colourful life!" I wish you the same!

But are colours just meant for eyes? What would different colours mean for say, a blind person. I think his higher perception capabilities of other senses might help distinguish colours - Just that he might not know what we call as red is red. I am sure he would have a colourful life as well, probably not in the literal sense of ours!

@Regular
  • Saw: Madagascar 2 - Complete fun for 89 mins that we didn't realize that the movie got over. Man, I should tell you, the penguins are way too awesome!
  • Read(ing): We are like that Only, the book by Rama Bijapurkar, saying Indian consumers are not about logic, rather magic!
  • Visited: (a) Kyber @ Khar - L^2, the infamous drink, dance and chit-chat night of IIMB was replicated at Mumbai - We couldn't replicate the campus atmosphere, neverthless it was good fun. (b) Noodle Bar - Good place for people fond of Chinese - You gotta make the noodle of your choice - You can't blame the restaurant for it not coming out well (c) The 'Croma' @ High Street Phoenix - Made us wonder when they are going to break even!
  • Met: The other day when I was getting back home, saw the posters "Remember Hanuman, Vote for Monkey", "You like Milk? Vote for Buffalo", "For Auspcious prosperity, vote for Elephant"- I couldn't look at the details of the poster - I just thought that the college elections have gone innovative and felt like laughing for the moron who chose Buffalo and Monkey. Last week I realized that it was the new and interesting campaign to save tiger. What I missed in the posters is the tag-line that follows the voting request - "Vote as the NEW NATIONAL Animal" - Last I heard, this has created quite some buzz in colleges and malls. You can check out the website of the 2 energetic brains behind this - http://www.sproutsenvttrust.org/ and if you want to vote, follow this link. What I quite liked about their idea is the whole angle of positiveness to their programs. Also, met a lot of old friends this week.
  • Quote of the week: A leader sees a leader in everyone

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