The colour of blood!

The other day I got into a “colourful” argument with a very close friend, who happens to be a designer. 

Now the trouble with designers is, that they are peculiarly specific about the texture, shade and material of the cloth in question.

So it can’t be just a pink patterned cotton dress for them….

No sir, not at all!!!

You have to be specific about whether you want an embroidered, a self design, a patch-work, a tye-and-dye, ikkat, shibori or a plain material,

In pure cotton, blended cotton, linen, thick cotton, khadi or muslin,

And in baby pink, hot pink, rose pink, dark pink, candy pink, fushia, magenta or peach pink!!!!!

By the time a person gets out of this mumbo-jumbo of the cloth and shade, “plain” sweat breaks out on the “crumpled” forehead and the skin is flushed to a nice “bloody-pink”!

This actually got me thinking. If 5 or 6 types of different materials have so many types of pinks and reds, then how can millions of people populating the earth have the same shade of blood??

Does the colour and shade of blood too depend on the quality, attitude, thoughts, feelings and the overall bearing of a person?

Does the colour of innocence differ from that of cruelty?

Would a woman’s blood shade be different from a man’s?

Does the colour of blood too differentiate between the colour of the skin?

Would it be different according to the race, caste, religion, class and position in the society??

It sometimes seems so easy for someone to draw out the red sparkling liquid from a human or an animal’s cage without giving it a second thought; while a drop of the same liquid flowing from a loved one’s body gives the most immense pain. 

Is it because of the colour, texture or quality of the blood or is it just the factor or “ours” versus “theirs”?

It’s sometimes strange to ponder that the colour of the blood flowing in Mother Teresa’s veins was the same as that flowing in Adolf Hitler’s body. 

Would there have been some difference in the shade of that blood? 

Maybe it was crimson in one’s body and scarlet in the other one’s?

Red, scarlet, cherry, rose, crimson, berry, ruby, garnet, carmine, chili or raspberry….

Who says what’s in a shade?

The happiness of thousands or the misery of millions….. everything depends on the quality and colour of the liquid pumping out from that squishy organ.

As Goethe says, “Blood is a very special juice.”

The colour of the blood is still a mystery for my feather-brain!

Spiced up!!!!

Are you one of those people who propound the saying of “Sarve bhavantu sukhinah” (may all stay happy), but want it to be AFTER you have achieved your own bliss??

That the whole world should be a happy garden, but that particular brand of happiness or joy should find it’s beginnings from your own nest??

Well, my mom certainly is!

She wishes for the peace, overall happiness and calm pervading the whole world, 

She wants all people to live together harmoniously,

She wants to see smiling and glowing faces around her and would go an extra mile to make sure that this happens…

But!

This absolutely should not happen at the expense of her peace, calm and quietude!

So thus happened that she got a lovely and vibrantly green plant of chillies as a gift from a dear friend. The plant was sparkling with life and of course, was laden with bright green chillies. 

Now the gardener who tends to our plants told her that she could make saplings and distribute it to some of her friends, so that they all would be able to relish the fresh chillies from their very own small terrace garden.

The idea appealed greatly to my mom and that very day there were swaying green chili plants adorning many balconies in our society (just some poetic beautification of really small saplings!) 

Everyone was happy.

Well, everyone was, till about a month later, when our plant somehow stopped producing the vivid green chillies. My mom waited….

And then waited some more, making twice a day rounds of the balcony, prodding, poking, shaking and scrutinizing the plant for some sign of green sprouts..

But all in vain!

Not a single chili came thereafter.

Now the cruel twist in the fate was that every evening when she met her friends for their evening meet and greet, her friends used to wax poetic about the lovely colour, awesome taste and aromatic freshness of the chillies from their plant, which my mum had given them!

You can just realise how livid she might have been, that she yelled at our gardener for not doing his job properly, for over-watering the plants, and for some sort of evil eye on our happy, green plants! (and here I thought that chillies are themselves used to ward off the evil eye!!)

After four five days, her patience gave way and she uprooted the plant and threw it in the bin, saying that the light isn’t correct for the chillies to grow and so what was the point of “blocking” a pot when we can use it for some other potted plant!!

That day I realized what people meant by getting “spiced up”,

Like literally!!

Doesn’t the same thing happen to a lot of us when the whole society has electricity and only our home is in darkness?

Or when just out maid falls sick during some function when all other cooks are making heavenly food items in our “pados ka Ghar”? (neighbor’s house)

But most when the neighbor’s kid secures 90%, while out child manages to get “just” 87%?? (the horror!!!)

We seem to be comparing something or the other constantly with those around and about us. Scores, kids, lifestyle, money, salary….even something as frugal as number of pets or pots!!

As Steven Furtick puts it, “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel”

Isn’t it so true!!