Do we know that there is a disease called “Achromatopsia” — where people cannot differentiate between colors and see everything just as a shade of black and white?

Sometimes we don’t realize how important colors are in our lives and how grateful we should be to be able to see them.

Remember when we were all kids, we always wanted to have that most colorful popsicle, that beautiful pink notebook, the bright yellow footwear, and the most colorfully decorated cake for our birthdays. Colors used to be our life, and our toys and dresses were all like rainbows.

Today, when I looked at my wardrobe, I could only see very few colors — white, light blue, shades of cream — or to say all the standard corporate colors. I can only wonder what it would be like to wear a shining Ferrari red shirt to the office? If I make a very engaging colorful presentation, it is not professional enough — or it does not go well with brand image.

Sometimes I wonder do the corporates have a secret agenda of taking colors out of our life? You have million other ways to make life dull, please just let colors be in our lives 😄.

I looked at my stationary box and could only find a blue, green and red pen —maybe because the office stationary only supplies this. But most people don’t even use that — a blue pen is all they need. The only colorful things on my desk these days are post aids, and that also for the purpose of segregation and not for the love of colors.

There is a question that we all need to ask ourselves — I wonder at what age did our love for colors begin to fade, and why do we never even realize that.

If someone asks me my favorite color today, I doubt if I would have an answer anymore.

We all need to acknowledge that we are moving far away from colors, and there is a dire need to be more colorful, for all the good things colors add to our lives.

I. Colors = Happiness. End of Story!

Our emotions are always governed by colors. Remember when you were happy, you wanted to wear that colorful dress with lots and lots of different flowers on it. But on a dull morning, you would pick up a monotonous shirt/top.

The good thing is that the reverse is also true. If you wear a colorful dress on a dull day, it surrounds you with some cheerful positive energy.

Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up. Allen Klein

II. Colors = Variety

A renowned chef once told me that your meal is not wholesome unless you have all the colors on your plate.

Different colors indicate variety, be it in terms of emotions, or our food, or our work. Unless all of it is colorful, there is usually something that is missing and we need to identify that.

III. Colors = Learning

Some facts to highlight in this regard:
— Colors improve our memory. We all remember a colorful image more than a monotonous black and white chart.
 —80% of our learning comes from what we see, and hence colors are important.
 — Colors help in holding the attention of the readers. Maybe try this next time you are giving a sales pitch or a presentation.

As per a research published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, students with autism showed significant improvement in reading speed when colored overlays was used for reading.

IV. Colors = Endless possibilities

Just imagine that there are only a handful of colors, but when we mix and match, there is an endless possibilities. Or just put all the colors together, and you shall see a beautiful rainbow taking shape.

I believe God created rainbow just to remind us that there are so many different colors around us, and just placing them side by side will create something beautiful. This is the beauty of unity in diversity.

How a rainbow became the symbol for homosexuality awareness movement?

Interestingly, when the symbol for homosexuality awareness was to be coined, Gilbert Baker used a rainbow flag as the symbol — as its colors indicated all the diverse things, that are beautiful.

“In 1978, when I thought of creating a flag for the gay movement, there was no other international symbol for us than the pink triangle, which the Nazis used to identify homosexuals in concentration camps. Even though the pink triangle was and still is a powerful symbol, it was very much forced upon us.”

“The rainbow is a part of nature, and you have to be in the right place to see it. It’s beautiful, all of the colors, even the colors you can’t see. That really fit us as a people because we are all of the colors. Our sexuality is all of the colors. We are all the genders, races, and ages.”

Gilbert Baker

How do people with Achromatopsia deal with lack of colors?

Lack of ability to identify color is a major change in lifestyle and people dealing with Achromatopsia, do things differently — a few examples have been presented below:

— For traffic lights, they only identify the blinking traffic light based on the position i.e. top/center/bottom, rather than the color.
— In school, teachers use different shapes rather than different colors to teach.
 — Differentiate colors based upon names rather than relying on visual observation.

Thinking about all this stuff, it sometimes scare me. The irony is that we are going so far away from colors but we never even realize that.

Just imagine that we wake up one day, and everything is made of one color — the mountain and sea are all black, the sky and earth are both red, everywhere that we see is one and only one color?

Yesterday, I went to a very big stationary shop — with a huge variety of colored pencils, colorful notebooks with quotes on each page, and all things beautiful. So many colors , and guess what, I bought a lot of them 😃. I never knew I could become happy so easily.
To all the 30-70 years old readers out there, if you have ever loved such stuff, just go out and explore. There is a lot of good colorful stuff out there which we could have never imagined earlier. Or as a bare minimum, just buy a colorful confetti popper and pop it😃 — this will surely bring a smile on your face, and add some colors to your life.

And Mr. Tony Stubblebine, why is Medium only black and white? I want to highlight this text in baby pink — Please help.

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