Yellow in my Life

The other day, a colleague of mine asked me as to why I always used yellow colour to highlight important data points in presentations and dashboards.  That was the first time I realized what he said was right. I always had this fascination for the yellow colour in my dashboards, as the first choice of colour. The other colours only followed the sequence, in case I needed more distinct highlights.

My knowledge of colorimetry tells me that Yellow is the most visible and most luminous of all the colours of the spectrum. It’s the colour that captures our attention more than any other colour. As the psychologist in me started analysing my life to look for all the ‘yellows’ hidden therein, I also read somewhere that ‘yellow’ is considered the colour of happiness, and optimism, of enlightenment and creativity, sunshine and spring. And the Japanese relate to ‘yellow’ as the colour of courage. That was somewhat of a relief against my cynicism.

Indeed it was right that I chose that colour as a first choice in my creations.  However, there were other ‘yellows’ in my life as well.  The first ever automobile that I rode was a ‘yellow’ Bajaj 150 scooter that my father owned and it carried all those bruises caused by my full throttle misadventures, until my father repainted it.   And then I owned a ‘yellow’ car that was always a talk of the town – when I drove that in Delhi and later when I carried it to Bangalore. It was such a distinct and unique colour that people used to notice me on the road and used to check with me if I was driving through a particular lane the previous day? The ‘yellow’ colour car had become my identity of sorts amongst my acquaintances.

But the most important and defining yellow moment of my life was the colour of dress that my wife wore, when I was introduced to her for the first time in my office. That was exactly 25 years ago from today – on the 15^th July 1991.  And that precisely is the reason for me to write this ode on ‘yellow’ today. That was the day she joined our new office. I had also moved to this office just 2 weeks earlier from a different city. The two of us were chosen through a test to move into this IT department from our respective Bank branches. As others in this office were ‘seniors’, I was eagerly waiting for this ‘batch-mate’ of mine to join this new office.

I was told on a Saturday that the lady had been relieved from her branch and would join this office on the following Monday.  As I was eagerly waiting to meet her on Monday morning, I noticed a girl wearing a ‘yellow’ suit walking up the corridor. Was she the girl? I was not sure and just got busy with my work. A little later, my Manager walked up to me with this lady and introduced her to me. Yes, that was the girl. The girl I was waiting for. The girl who would be my batch-mate at this new office. The girl who would be as new to the system as I was. The girl who could relate to my initial tentativeness at this new place and the new work.

About a year later, this lady in ‘yellow’ answered me in affirmative and exchanged vows with me – yet again, in a ‘yellow’ Mysore Silk Sari.

And as I reminisce that momentous encounter with ‘yellow’ 25 years back, a wishful thought comes to my mind and I intend asking my wife  – was she wearing that most visible, most luminous yellow that is ought to capture the maximum attention, only to impress a tall, dark, handsome batch-mate who was waiting for her to join that new office? Most likely the response would be a coyish disavowal of my claim. Nevertheless, I still owe a lot to ‘yellow’ in my life.

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