What was Cleopatra's favourite colour?

Cleopatra painting on Papyrus - www.fromcairo.com

What was Cleopatra's favourite colour? ... It was Purple! The royal colour...the colour of divinity and that of the rich...the colour that possesses in itself a lot of mystery and perplexity...the colour that embodies the stimulation of red and the calmness of blue...

Before I started writing this post today I had planned to write about Violet but I could not resist the mystic qualities of purple and therefore had to write about it!!! Although not too far away from each other in the colour spectrum, both these colours are quite different technically. While purple is a range of hues between red and blue and is used as a common term to describe the same, Violet refers to the last colour of the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum. 

I associate purple with royalty... It is what I feel when I am treated as a princess. Whether it is Baba trying to organise quick shipping of my demands from overseas or M cancelling a meeting because I need help with something silly... I don't know whether they do it to make me feel like a princess (I desperately hope that they don't feel pressurised to do it!) but I feel happy and Purple when they do it!

Bonuram and me were always treated like princesses when we were growing up... Although we were taught the realities of life, we were always made to feel special!!! I remember Thamma cooking hot breakfast for us at day-break, Dada ironing our clothes to make going to school easier.. And Ma Baba  sacrificing a lot of their comforts to afford taxis for our commute to school and back... These things did not seem too big then... But today when I am a mom myself I know how much it took... How difficult yet easy it was for them to make our lives royal... When I look back at the rainbow of childhood memories, Violet/Purple seems to be the logical colour behind every shade of Orange, Red or Yellow as the happiness and joy that we felt then was because somebody thought that we were worthy of it... Because Ma, Baba, Thamma, Dada thought we were princesses and made efforts to help build our lives likewise....This painting is in honor of that feeling of Purple!



Painting by Dita

What childhood memories can you relate to Purple? When you spend time with your present parter in crime, do you feel Purple?