Monotone.
I have always liked colours. I may not know all the names of the colours, but then again I have always had a high affinity for various colours. Having said that I never liked the bright colours. It so clearly negates the whole idea of being inconspicuous. I do occasionally give a side eye to people who wear florescent coloured anything. I mean I am not sure, but are they trying to be found from space. Perhaps, if there is an intelligent beings out there in the universe, they just might find this one beacon of glare that is ever so blinding, even to them. I remember this one time, I was asked why I wasn’t picking the red one. Red is the colour anyone would pick to stand out. I have, probably never will want to be in such a situation. I lied. We all want to stand out, perhaps in other ways, or perhaps it might have something to do with these bright colours. Long story short, it goes without saying that even though I like the spectrum of colours, but when it comes to choosing something, I narrow down the colours to a handful. Well, actually two. Blank and blue; and the many shades of these, and course on the darker side. I don’t do anywhere near the lighter side. It brings out the contract and that is worse than anything. It doesn’t and clearly doesn’t suit me one bit. So, I usually stick to one colour, the black. This seems to go well with me quite perfectly and I never had any complaints, except when they start messing things up. What do you mean ‘mess things up’?

Now, you must be pretty certain and with what I have told in not so many jumbled sentences, that black is my friend. And that black might as well be my favourite colour or them all. To point the obvious, the colour black and I are mostly on the same page when it comes to matchability, let’s say compatibility. But maroon used to be my favourite colour. I even got stuff of this colour. And along the way, and the drive to be inconspicuous, I seem to have drifted towards the colour black. I now, have a whole idea of how everything I have would be black. But that is a work in process. And then again, the same colour also happens to be my enemy as well. I got these really cool sneakers, and now that I am crying over it, I kick myself for not getting two of them. I mean who even buys things in pairs, I mean two of same thing and that too shoes. So, the shoes I had solely reserved for when I go out and given that it was covid, going out was like once in a year kind of event. But all that soon changed when it was summer and I was wearing the cool pair everywhere I go. And one such activity I wore was to bike around the city. Little did I know that my attempt to book faster like and using the wrong oiling products lead to a an otherwise obvious anticipation that this would ruin stuff. So, the first time after successfully oiling up, resetting the bike and feeling like I will be breezing so fast and that too without any much effort which clearly didn’t happen. It felt like it was even more hard to bike and not to mention the breezing,  I was barely moving. But that didn’t stop me, I was still pushing hard. Exercise, I called it. Weight loss, I assured myself. Six Packs, I consoled myself. And despite having such high hopes and ambitions, I was only left with tears. 

The whole time I thought I was going the extra mile, which I clearly wasn’t, I was encouraging my carefully applied grease to fly everywhere, all the places, all the directions that even physics hasn’t anticipated. The end product of this marvellous feat was that my trousers had caught all that without missing even one drop of oil. The worst part was that even my beloved shoes disguised itself as a magnet to catch all the greasy stuff. Thanks to my innovative approach, all the little whites that the shoe had ( yes had ), is no longer visible. And believe me, no amount of cleaning was helping it. I even order stuff specifically to get this cleaned up and that didn’t quite work either. Now you see my cry for not getting a two of the same kind. A though did cross me what if I had the shoes all white. It would have been a nightmare. Or perhaps, it might had a cool ‘abstract’ design. I do remember one time when a friend of mine wanted an all white shoe who continued to say that how it would look great with their attire. I also remember clearly thinking to myself that “White! I would never in a million years”. This was the phase when I was neck deep into everything black. And everything that would make me noticeable was a “No No” zone. And guess what!?

I now have not one but two pairs of white shoes, of different brand of course. But two! I have always hated white. It never went with my vibe. It might have something to do with the complexion, that it would be an absolute contrast to say the least. And like I have said time and again, I am not a big fan of being noticed. I clearly don’t want to be noticed, but then again I do. I have clearly done things, wore things and whatnot. I had been very subtle about that, but then again, I wasn’t. I try to give small hints that I am being showy, but it is a completely different story that no one gives a shit. But then again, I dance to the beat of my own drum. I mean I move like a maniac, since for the life of me I can’t dance. And then comes these white shoes. I have no idea what possessed to get them. Perhaps, the million hours that I racked up watching instagram reels, Tiktok videos ( even though I deleted them they seem to pop up everywhere ) and seeing how cool those white shoes looked. The one part I missed clearly was that they had everything going that would make it suitable for them. And all I was doing was murder, fashion murder, style murder. All counts of murder that there possibly can be. Thanks to my brave and bold fashion choice, I now walk like a duck not to get any dirt on the shoes. I would prefer I don’t even walk because I don’t want to spoil the sole of the shoe, but I clearly can’t fly. And it so happens that I was not quite satisfied with the one shoe or the antics (pretending to show off) that I keep doing, I got another pair. Well, it is a long story, for another day. All I can say now is that today marks the day when I broke into the new shoes, and no matter how much of a duck I tried to be, I was still left with creases in  all the wrong places. 

ak | ix.iii.mmxxii