Red

An essential element of hemoglobin is Iron. The air that we breathe in provides us with oxygen which in turn binds with this ferrous metal, changing the shade of the blood from red to bright red. As the heart pumps this HbO2 blood away from itself, flowing through our body this red fluid makes us function, makes us work and makes us, us. I am not sure about the color of our souls but from the inside we humans are indeed red, sometimes with or without oxygen, we have some red in ourselves, always with varying shades. But how much value do we give to this three-lettered color?

Red because of its least scattering phenomenon is used when things have to be halted or are on a halt, to denote stoppage or restriction. On the other hand, red is used to portray love, lust, strength and vitality, all these things which require great amount of energy and time, and thus here red means to take control of the situation. So, being red is both to stop and to move. Red is an oxymoron kind of word. We adore this color when we see a person clothed in it, we get attracted and some of us even behave like that moth whose long enduring search for a flame has finally come to an end, such joyfulness and passion. But what if we see the same color at a traffic signal, we just want it to change to green, we despise red, we honk unnecessarily at other vehicles standing motionless in this paused rush hour. At this stage, we have become red with anger. We become what we love and what we hate, we become RED.

Red is everywhere, in the soils, in a woman’s menstrual flow, in the blood that a soldier sheds to protects his or her motherland from the outside world and then when we finally become a part of the soil again. Red is in rust too, showing decay of time, slow degradation and corrosion. Birth, life and death joined by a common thread of a three-letter word ‘Red’. How valuable this low frequency color is to our lives, it stays us with us from beginning till the end. Yet, when dire times come, when things take a turn for the worse we just cut ourselves open, and this precious colored blood oozes out of our body, what a waste; is it right? No. Shed some tears they are transparent, but let the red flow in your veins, let the red be red, let you be you.