I remember when I was a kid , I used to love monsoon but loathed the grey clouds which floated like a phantom over the earth and scattered the illusions of darkness across the horizons of earth before it rained . Since then , I started hating this absolutely intricate combination of black and white . I've always adored the beauty of simplicity which blossomed in any form in this beautiful film called life .
Maybe that was the reason why I never liked this particular shade since it is a mixture of both white and black . Neither does it fully embrace white nor does it fully embrace black . It seems as if it abandons and embraces a certain portion of both the colors and transforms into a whole new shade . A shade which skillfully conceals both the traces of white and black in such a manner that white and black won't ever return back to their original shades like they were before .
Also I noticed one thing , in my house everyone used to apply this shade on their forehead before leaving for any significant work and they termed it as "ANGAARA" (ash) and claimed that this will protect us against all the evil forces . It seemed as if the color which I had an intense dislike for was God's favourite . I failed to understand that how can a shade which is so chaotic can be God's favourite . Since childhood , I have always been taught that God always favours the light of truth and anything shady will always be destroyed by God himself. Also , this shade is a symbol of destruction so how can it be a blessing for anyone? I failed to understand it all till the time I kept looking at life as black and white . I'm guilty of labelling people and experiences in my life as "Good" and "Bad" . But as I started growing up , I realised that both good and bad are relative . The life is neither fully white nor black but a combination of both . The people and experiences that shape our lives also are neither fully good nor fully bad . Life is also like that intricate shade of grey which is an amalgamation of both black and white .
Those chaotic grey clouds which I hated , comprised of the nectar called rain inside them which imbued new life into the earth . The angaara which is often applied on forehead in every household including mine is a blessing since it has been purified by the touch of God himself . In the same manner , we cannot accuse the dark times in our lives nor rely on the good times in our lives because there is often a lesson to be learned during dark times which will bring back the good times in our lives and this dark time and the lessons learnt during that time act as a reminder for us to stay grounded and not to rely too much on good times .
Every stroke of darkness gives birth to a ray of light and every ray of light rising rapidly is just a sign that it's just about to get dark . Every beginning turns into an ending and every ending creates a new beginning . Every lesson reveals some kind of blessing hidden inside it if handled with caution and every blessing turns into a lesson if not handled with caution . A person rises like a phoenix from it's own ashes and also turns into ashes after becoming phoenix because life is neither purely white nor black but a intricate combination of black and white termed as Grey which purifies our head filled with ego and pride like angaara (ash) does .
© Minotee Gokhale