The other day at my office, I was awestruck by the bright colours of sarees wore by our female colleagues. I stood by and wondered at such timeless and versatile Indian garments. I believe, it must be on some special occasions. Yes, it was the first day of Navratri. It’s another occasion all across the country celebrated in nine long days with significance of nine colours. From yellow to white, grey, brown, red, orange, blue, pink and green, I was wonderstruck, how come it’s nine, when we read seven colors of the visible light spectrum in Physics. The intensity of light varies with the wavelength or frequency. The visible solar spectrum is ranging from the shortest visible wavelengths ‘Violet’ light to the longest ‘Red’ light.
Honestly, I tried those phenomena in dark room lab, albeit struggling with optics. However, colour blindness is more common in males. On many occasion at shopping with my wife, I was unable to find distinction between colours. It seemed to have no end of naming colours of different clothing. With varieties of ‘Pat’, ‘Muga’ and ‘Toss’, while displaying a large number of Assamese ‘mekhela chadar’, the shopkeeper saw my bewildered look on my face. Women are very fond of dress and I was desperately searching at the corner for a tool to sit as I found it so exhausting, time consuming and realized why women put so much time into that dress they wear only once.
Now the autumn festival is round the corner and there are a hive of activities seen around on these days. The Durga Puja in Eastern India is more than just a religious occasion. It has evolved into a celebration of art and culture. People from all walks of life joined together to celebrate the triumph of Rama over the Demon King Ravana at Dussehra. From Khichdi feasting to Puja Pandal hopping and its emotional moments of Devi immersion are reminded us our youthful days. That Bata’s campaigns of a new pair of shoes at Puja stand out as timeless memory and a new colourful dress from Fancy Bazar amped up our wardrobe too. People of Kolkata make a beeline for affordable shoes at Sreeleathers. Travel lovers, bloggers have been so enthralled by the adventure in the hilly areas of Sikkim, Meghalaya and Arunachal during this puja vacation that they had hardly noticed the difficulties in off road driving.
The various colours of light of Diwali made people happy. Even the Editor Patricia Mukhim of The Shillong Times was delighted so much in the last time, while visiting Guwahati, quoted “Guwahati flyovers are all lit up for Durga Puja”. At the same time of our festival, people from Gujarat and Rajasthan paint their homes in bright colors to welcome the goddess Lakshmi during Deepavali. The business mindset of any Gujju believed that it symbolizes wealth and prosperity. So I felt inspired to do so this time. Despite all feeling bullied from all unalike colours, extensive renovations are carried out at my ancestral home. Things had gone well until the last task of what colour should paint my home. I tried to convince my painter wife so hard that ‘Grey’ is my favourite and the list goes on from her colour catalogue. It’s bountiful to capitol, counter, distinguished, elegant, elusive, bits, concepts and what’s more. I was momentarily confused by all those colours. She finally chose to ‘Silver Grey’.
The inflated balloons with air are popped up, while dancing with the wind; some are burst with a bang. The kids are disheartened by the result of the balloons. Puja enthusiasts at Pandu-Maligaon kept moving from one puja place to another to explore the artistic depiction of Devi Durga. The Bengali percussions of beautiful dhaks and energetic dhakis are the essence of Durga Puja. As I lazily moved away from the evening Arati, the sound gets quieter. Back home, it’s time to offer some puja to seek blessings. Amidst all those colours of these festivals, I have already had my house painted in ‘Grey’. Coincidentally, my hair is set and turned gray. And I welcome this new silvery shade in my life. It’s another cause for Puja celebration today.
(Email: kamal.baruah@yahoo.com)