Childhood in Colour

The Gradient of Life

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have Promises to keep —

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

— Robert Frost

Once upon a childhood time these lines used to only be lines on paper, blotted with ink and littered with sharpener peels. With the passing of years, words on pages have started holding some more meaning to each of us.

Looking back on my childhood days, I see the colour yellow- all sunshine and happiness. Perhaps, in this context, a lovely shade of green- as lovely, dark and deep as the woods. Thinking was kept to a minimum and procrastinating was out of question. Rationality and Ethics were heavy matters kept aside to discuss at the adult table. Responsibilities were treated like a necessary evil and Morals became the guiding light under whose light, we occasionally faltered. However, it was a time of real joy, when the only promises to keep were either calling up your friends to come play or sharing your tiffin.

Growing up, the edges of that blissful greenish yellow started fading and merged into an obscure midnight blue. The blue of the lovely, dark and deep sky. The blue which posed an afterthought. The blue which turned into question marks on life. Now, before calling up your friend perhaps you’d think they should call you first, and so you don’t.

With the blue then comes the grey. The grey brings with it deceit and mistrust, two new flavours of adulthood. Now, you wonder who your friends really are and perhaps come up with no satisfactory answer.

The woods still look lovely from where I stand, but the promise has a different meaning. As childhood left, it took with itself the pure unadulterated joy of yellow and mystical allure of green. In its place arrived an ever-careful, ever-questioning, restraining purple. A gorgeous purple made of royal skepticism.

I say this because earlier in life, I would have perhaps stayed in the deep enchanting forest, but now the purple edges keep me away from imagination and closer to pragmatism. The purple tells me that I, indeed as everyone else, have miles to go before I sleep.

— M.C.