Commonwealth essay- I am the color blue

I am the color blue

Prakhar Bhardwaj, December 2007

I caress the river banks and fall upon sullen gloom; I becalm someone but cause tumult in the sailor’s life. I am the color blue. Spread on the shirts of youth spread like a blanket on rivers and show on blood clotted scars. I am blue. I have a strange persona, something the block red and the vague black can never have about them. I have traveled through time, space and oh! Yes music too… I am the color blue.

The greatest civilizations have played in my lap whether it be the mystic towns beside the river Nile or simply the Indus valley civilization. I do not provide resources for life for I am life itself, life for the woman who bends down to fetch a pale of water, life for the salmon that goes against my flow, life for the weeds that swing in my cradle life for the countless , unobliged and ungrateful citizens of the world. But why am I only depicted in utopian visions these days.

I am the soul of music itself well.. They dedicate the whole genre to my name, in my honor and in my glory. I have pranced on Clapton’s fretboard and been honored by many guitar gods such as BB king and others. Found my voice through the saxophone and the same through a cello, I am enjoyed over a tequila or simply by the moonlight. I stream from originality when the soul speaks through the instrument.

My authority is not only expressed but people exploit its power, people today die to boast a lineage of blue blood. Blue blood they say represents a stature in society of a socially prominent family one that is symbolic of power, authority respect and dignity. Blue blood is what differentiates the commons from the aristocrats, the nobility from the clergy and the class from the wanna-be!

I am primary – the base of all colors. Such is my foundation over all other colors that when people refer to the plan of action they call it a blue print without me nothing commences and if it does the efforts and its existence is short lived.

My influence ranges to the moon too for the rarities in natures are only compared to the moon when its described along my name- once in a blue moon stands for the coon’s age.

Citations aside all winners carry me with their honor in their pride and jest I the blue ribbon am synonymous with laurels, palms, trophies and victory.

In pride and victory remembered but I am too remembered in the most arbitrary of situations when people predict all the unexpected to come out of me , for anything that surprises them is out of the blue.

I enjoyed the panoramic space I possessed earlier as I looked down upon lush green scenery. As me and the earth exchanged glances through clarity of colorless air. I enjoyed the power of the winds. I liked the way the seas looked upon me for I decided its color. I liked the way the birds would flap only to drown in my placid expanses. I beheld authority, beauty, rapture and composure.

The color blue once spread through out the sky causing strange shapes only to amuse children and their sweet giggles. I gave company to the albatross who flew with its wings spread far and wide, I gave company to the fluffy skies who floated about me preying for my attention. But the amendments in the world are just too heavy.

And although I am not proud off it but nowadays I feel a wave toppling over sailors these days. The sun feels too hot and the skies seem too humid maybe it is just me but I have to leap to cool down. I helplessly cause storms these days maybe it is because I don’t stay in the sky anymore so the blue in the sky visits me only to cause storms. Battered , bruised and broken I am not the blue I was before.

People today dislike me; people purposely want their rivers all green and black. I love the days of my youth when men came and men went but I dreamt of lasting forever. But today those are just shattered dreams, shattered and forgotten like people have for gotten me….. The color blue. People seem to dislike me for they continue to strangle my reach into the depths of my very own waters. Why so? I soothe the soul and comfort the eye then why are these humans swapping me with black.

I have remained constant then why to discriminate against me now? Why to choke me with black dust now I was happy being up there looking down upon the many happy faces that watched me in amusement. But now they just see me with eyes filled with water , They see me with angst for they cannot breathe , I face visages that cough while looking up to me . They do not look up to me anymore. They look down on me with pity or just plain dismay - I do not know why.

And while I hate to go to the sad people and gloom calls upon me, I am compelled to do so. For children do not giggle these days their faces are covered with distress.

I feel like the candle fluttering in the face of a blizzard, likely to die of weakness soon.

Is it just my calmness that flinches their ruffian eyes or is it something more?

The red is in veins it cannot be banished for it is too synonymous to human life. Black is the color mandatory for nightfall and so even it can not be wiped off the world’s canvas. The yellow and bright sunshine shall stay for human subsistence, but for me I am exhaustible.

Blue-one color but still I am a mortal. My ill health made no notice in the eyes of the citizens. My emaciated body only seems like a thing passing by. For days, nights, years together I was waiting for attention and care. But nobody came to help the color blue. I vanished from the skies and vanished from the seas, I have faded to black in the cruelty of my own fate. Lost, trashed and strung-out when a mere mortal such as me tries to fight back- its is not termed as self defense or seeking refuge. Its merely self resurrection, but it is called a tsunami. Tycoon or simply put a - disaster. It is not seen as a helpless pursuit to save one’s own life but it is in turn seen as “nature’s fury “ and a helpless calamity.

The master’s devices hurt most when used on the master and so men learn only after calamities hit their gaping wounds and leave them bruised to ponder over their mistakes and faults. The human which is deemed to be the carrier of light is now subjected to desolateness and melancholy. Such are the results obtained when the love of nature is taken for granted. Bigotry shall be abolished if the world wishes to live I blue appeal to all men to stop diluting purity now. If there is one thing man can do is to cry me a river. If man cannot fill my wounds with purity let them heal with the feelings of remorse, if energy drained out of my body cannot be fuelled by my original color it will be equally so with repentance and the promise to never extinguish a color again from the face of the face of the earth.. I the color blue bid goodbye to falls into the grave of oblivion.