Colour Vision: 9999FF

by Ant Stone on June 23, 2010

in Features,India

Continuing the weekly feature of colour vision, a piece of creative writing which explores the emotions and recollections embodied within a randomly selected colour

If you like the experience you’re about to encounter, I’d really appreciate your feedback in the comment thread, or via the contact form.

Absorb this colour. It’s cool, and calm yet sulky and sobering. Absorb this colour for all the reasons you can find in the far reaches of its transient call. This colour is stubborn. It’s the colour of silent screams. The colour which hides down your throat when you yell out in anger.

That was my initial feeling when I stripped 9999FF from the colour wheel. It’s the colour that’s stuck down your throat while all the deep reds, oranges and fragrant blues stream out and swarm the air. But what of its relation to my journey? I’ve yelled very few times in my life.

I fucking screamed in India. However, now this colour is restored to its native home, its anger is lessened. Its tense frustration gently loosens, and where it once scorched my throat, it now soothes my eyes.

This colour is found on Indian riversides. It’s draped, sopping wet, over drying stones. It’s slammed, twisted, yanked and mashed against rocks by beautiful and bright-eyed men and women, whose white teeth shine like Nike ticks on glossy, taught Indian faces.

Except these dhobi wallahs care little for leading sports brands, because they’re washing the lungis (sarongs) of a thousand friends. Tirelessly working in unison, their arms rhythmically circling like the beating wings of starlings. A swarm of ticks. Slamming the seed to my screams with a smile that says; Just Do It and a message that says; Just Don’t. This colour is India. This colour is screamless torment and unbridled awe.

It’s an amazing experience for me to write these pieces. Once I lock onto a colour, I’m hypnotised by it. It roils through my veins, and the result is some of the purest writing you’re likely to experience.

India was an amazing country to explore, and revisiting some of the many emotions I felt there, is exciting.

At first, 9999FF had me stumped. I stared at it for a few minutes, trying my hardest to tune in and then it possessed me. Reading back through it is like hearing a hypnotist regale what I’d told them. This might sound la-la, but try it for yourself. Id love to see the results.

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