From Black And White To Color

HP Laser Jet had organized a blogging contest with the topic' Take Flight With COlors'. Bloggers had to think of something black and white and then re-imagine it in color. Unfortunately, by the time I saw the contest, it was already closed. But I can still write a post, can't I.

When I think of black and white the first thing that comes to mind is....me. Well, not exactly me, but a picture of me. Till I was in second standard, I always took my pictures for school in black and white. The passport-sized snap would say absolutely nothing about the red pattern on my shirt or the cute little duckling on the front of my tunic. This picture would show up in my report card, the front page of my school diary and all other school diaries.

I also think about our black and white TV. We had a color TV, but it gave us technical troubles sometimes and we had to switch to the black and white one whenever that happened. These days, I don't see TV sets like that anymore. It looked like a box. It was tiny, but it still took up space unlike the flatscreens of today.

I think of the few black and white movies I have seen. The first one was Solvaan Saal, starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman. In the late 90s and early 2000s, Indian movies rarely ever made sense. From the clothes to the make-up, the cliche storylines to melodramatic actors- everything was wrong. We were going through a bad phase as far as movies were concerned. But this movie told me that things had been better at some point. There was no flashy wardrobe, sizzling item numbers or typical poor boy meets rich girl plot, and that was what kept me hooked. Over the years, I have developed a taste for old movies and most of my favorites are from the 60s and 70s.

But when I put it all together, I realize that black-and-white basically reminds me of a time that is now gone. I switched to color photos. We own an LCD TV. I watched Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara which had basically no connect with Indian society. Somehow, I don't mind going back to the time of black-and-white. I don't mind the simplicity. I don't mind the excitement that had prevailed all over when color display came to mobile screens for the first time. I don't mind the allure that color held when it wasn't there. Basically, the transition from black-and-white to color is something I use as a metaphor for the world changine from uncomplicated to strangely materialistic. The color has come, but the picture is grainy because we have lost the depth.