I have been a fan of ‘The Beatles’ since high school.However, during my school days, on my way back home, I heard a fast-moving car playing ‘Paint It Black’ by ‘The Rolling Stones’.The moment I heard the song, it captured my heart.This song, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and released in 1966, still takes me into a nostalgic overdrive, not because of the melody, but because of the feelings it evokes.The song revolves around a narrator who is so engrossed in sadness and mourning that he wants the world to lose its colours.The famous line, ‘I see a red door, and I want it painted black’, is often interpreted as a metaphor for inner darkness. It is not just about a door and the door paint.It is more about what happens when despair becomes the lens to see everything.People often grow up learning colours before they learn the alphabet, like the green of spring orchards in Shopian, the silver of the Lidder River waters, the white of Srinagar winter roofs, the saffron of Pampore autumn fields, and the blue that hangs over the mountains of Gulmarg after rain.And then there are places where colours become suspicious, where people stop talking about brightness, where they begin discussing shades instead - the acceptable shade, the safe shade, or the shade that attracts the........

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