Red...

"Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light..."

From The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Red...a color that denotes change, something the world seems to dread...a color that has been so deeply imbibed by the history of the world...a color that is deeply embedded in all the revolutions that rocked this world. There is also red, the color of blood...I suppose red is the most misunderstood among all the colors...a color that often gets drowned in the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness our society seems to be embracing these days. A color misunderstood because of the spillage of blood...because of violence...but still the brightest of all the colors. Red...my favorite color.

The thoughts about this beautiful color passed through my mind the night I was returning after watching a very thought-provoking hindi movie called Rang de basanti. The impact the movie left on all of us was rather evident from the discussions we were engaged in soon after the movie got over. I was quiet during the time though, as I was thinking about the color...red. As I sat in the car on my way back, listening to the discussion my friends were engaged in, the color red took me back to Kerala ( these momentary trips to Kerala have become more and more frequent for me these days)...a place where the color red is very dominant...a state even though one of the poorest in the world, demonstrates a quality of life that challenges even the most developed nations in the world...including the USA...a state that has famous economists of the world scurrying to study and make sense of the bizarre behavior of the so-called "Kerala Model"... a democracy as opposed to a demo-crazy as seen in most places...no matter what anyone says.

A kaleidoscope of emotions washed over me as I further tried to hold my thoughts together and make sense out of them. I then thought about my college...the burning ember of enthusiasm that used to fill the air...red. I then began to think about things that were not even close to being glossy about the color red...the fights...the pain...the frustrations...the anger...the violence. I entered that room in my hostel in college..a small room like all others...one that had 3 students living in it. I walked to the window and remembered my uncle telling me about the unforgettable events that had triggered a major scandal that started in that particular room about 30 years ago during the dark days of the emergency. This was where the police had come to arrest a final-year engineering student named Rajan. Rajan was taken into custody, never to be heard from again...an event that had a notable impact on the politics in Kerala as it created a ruccus that successfully pressurized the chief minister K. Karunakaran to resign within a month of his taking oath in the office soon after the emergency. Rajan was arrested along with his friend Chaly and the dubious arrest was not shown on record. Rajan reportedly died of police brutality and his body was allegedly burnt and the ashes thrown into a river by the police. Ashes to ashes...dust to dust. As I stood in the room where Rajan had stayed, I felt the darkness around me...black...suppressing all the other colors. However, in an instant the room dissolved in front of my eyes and I found myself back in the car. The Rajan case had found its way into my mind because of an article I had read which had reported that there are calls for the re-opening of the case and that this time, they might actually re-open it. Hope again came in the form of red, I thought....or maybe it was yellow...

We were finally reaching our destination and it was time for me to close the pandora's box. One thing I did understand at the end of my rumination was that it would be impossible to restrict life to a single color. Life is after all like a rainbow...you need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear. Let us start with red though...maybe it is indeed possible to make a change...a dynamic one at that.

As I then observed the small menagerie inside the car...the discussions were still raging on unabated...and one thing became quite obvious to me...that sure was one damn good movie!