“The bull charged at the matador!
He was holding the cloth which was red like fire!
Course he was colour blind so it doesn’t matter!
It was the swaying of muleta which gave him the ire!”
I love sketching in Black and White since I only have time for a quick sketch everyday! Also I like to still believe that things and people are still black and white in nature with shades of grey! Then again if that statement sounds prejudiced then that was unintentional.
Practically though even if you do not have any such thoughts inside you and you are liberal, colors do play an important part in our life! And people do favor color! Not the colour of skin but color of things!
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As a child I used to like some parties especially since we also knew that the dessert to be served was to be rajbhog! This was like the yellow version of Rasagulla but more sweet and creamy! Or maybe it tasted the same but the colour really made a difference!
If you do not believe me then one day when I was young (er!) my mother announced that she made lemon rice! To our surprise though it was white in colour! It tasted the same! Sour and salty and of course tasty but still something was missing! The colour! There was not turmeric in the house and the rice was no yellow! So in spite of it tasting like lemon rice, it did not look like one so we did not eat it!
Even now if there is no turmeric in the house, even if we have lemon; I do not make any lemon rice!
It is also the same with Dosa! and Idli!
The other day my wife who likes to make only healthy things to eat announced that she was making a special dosa for us that Sunday!
Holiday is the time for indulgence and eating leisurely and that day was no different! The aroma from the kitchen was really nice of hot ghee though I prefer sesame oil in my dosa! Now that is the topic of another blog!
Now my wife then laid the table with steel plates (no plastic or other plates when she is uncharge!) and placed the hot dosa! The dosa was a black color thing! I was too shocked to say anything! Of course, with the groundnut chutney (another misdirection!), the “dosa” did taste good! But it was no dosa! It was a healthy variant made with Ragi! I have now strictly told her that the next time she makes this black “dosa”, please call it Ragi Dosa or Ragi Roti! Anything but dosa which it is not because dosa is white or a little golden brown! But certainly not black! I do not think I need to tell about the black Ragi Idly right!?
Of course the next time we buy curtains and I causally mention that you can buy any color and it does not matter, the look my wife gives me is the same look I gave her when I got the Ragi dosa!
It is the same with coffee and tea! Many people see the colour! If you add too much milk or too little decoction or powder then the coffee is light which is ok for kids and those who do not drink it regularly!
But someone who drinks coffee especially filter coffee regularly then even if the taste is good, the colour must be perfect! A whitish coffee can never be a degree filter coffee! or even a Kadak chai!
In Kerala and in many other places, you get something called the milk tea! That is essentially tea with more milk but the way it is recognized is that the color is more white than the brown tea!
It is the same with coffee! Forget the taste, the color is the one which determines the first impression!
Even a well cooked dish is mainly determined by the color! How do you know the fritter or bajji or bonda is fried properly or not? Well, it is the color! Now the difference between the Bajji and Bond and pakoda is…the topic for another blog!
If you go to a shop and get a vada which is fair and not brown, I am sure you will think it is not cooked well or you may not even eat it!
It is the same with Rava Kesari! Mentally for me it is always yellow or orange! But when I see a white one, even if it tastes good, I would think the colored one tastes better!
Now you talk about Rosogulla and not talk about Gulab Jamun?! How can that be possible! In Gulab Jamun also there are two varieties! One is brown or golden brown or other variants of brown while the other is black! I like the brown variant! The black jamun is actually having a similar taste but they are generally more sweet since some sugar is added to the dough. This added sugar makes the caramelization and the balls are fried longer. The syrup is also mostly dry! But the chief reason I do not like them is that mentally I know they have to be brown and I have always eaten the brown jamun! So if someone tells me that they are serving Gulab Jamun and give me black dry balls then please excuse me if I do not like them! Of course there are people who like the black one more!
I still remember this variant of a popular cola company which was launched during this World Cup of cricket and since Indian team used to wear blue dress, it was blue in color! It was famous till Indian team was having the chance of winning the cup! But the moment India was out of the World Cup the demand for this cola disappeared! With that the cola also disappeared from the market soon! The only difference between the taste of the drinks was in the color!
Some time back one of our old hospitals where I used to work some years back suddenly came up with a brainwave possibly cooked up by some management dude who would have joined recently and to justify his pay would have come up with this mind shattering idea! The conventional dress of all surgeons which is the OT dress is almost everywhere green or blue in color; this self proclaimed Einstein got a new design made in Brown color which made us look like a cross between a sanitation worker and a post man (or woman!). Needless to say, it was not accepted by doctors but then they did not have any choice since whatever comes from the upper floors are usually taken up without a word by the ‘workers’! Luckily the national level accredit-ion inspection which happened soon after blasted the management for the color and the design and we were back to the green!
So color is really important though lets limit it to food and things! A colour ful poet also was birthday celebrity Gopaldas Saxena aka Neeraj!
Now allow the sweet colour of darkness to overcome your eyes and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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