Colours of Life

          

    

             Image Courtesy: Mohammad Abdullah on Freepik

           The Hindi cinema, as we had known it

Depicted all colours of life- bright, radiant, grey, dark

In a single movie, you had romance, conflict

Grief, happiness, fights, disappointment

 

Plenty of songs reflecting the various moods

the hues of life, that became super-duper hits

remembered fondly to this day with the

singers, lyricists and music directors becoming legends

youngsters recreating them in music competitions

Celebrations of festivals like Holi, celebration of seasons

Like spring, monsoon, winter, meant a splash of colours!

 

Then, we compared with the West, criticized our natural selves

Made fun, dismissed these films as “Masala, formula films”

Gave up our own natural flavour to “get rid of songs”

Restrict them to “one or two”, at best

 

Yet, the cold, expressionless, dead pan style of western pictures

Are not us- Indians are an emotional people

No matter, how much we try to ape those held “Sophisticated”

We are what we are! It is necessary to be

Who, we are in the inside, sans pretensions

 

Life is not about any one colour, it is an admixture

A tapestry of the highs and lows and the moods in between

“Living life to the Lees” is about embracing all the colours

Accepting everything, not rejecting anything…

 NB: This poem was composed for and recited at the Seniors Today online poetry meet on 13th March 2026.