Anupriya Chakraborty

This is the last sentence reading red. I'll describe it to you instead. 

It's the blaring beacons on top ambulances amidst a sea of the same in hordes of cars, all reflecting it right back. It's this color because it is the last visible color on the light spectrum; it doesn't disperse through air molecules easily but it collects quickly - it collects on open wounds and clenched fists, all concentrated on fixing something. 

It's heat. It's the last visible color on the spectrum but beyond it lies infrared rays and microwaves and radio waves. Molecules that cause heat, cause it beyond the limits of visibility. 

When it's not just heat, it's hot. The hottest part of a fire is blue but that's not the color we are most familiar with. That's the other one. It's the colour reflecting off our skin when the waves of fire leap and reach for it, the color of the blood in our body. Danger and our lifeblood are the same color, then. 

It's the colour of the alta on the hands and feet of anticipating brides, something to match their flush cheeks. It's the alta on the dancer’s hands and feet, where they meet to create a harmony of rhythms you can't look away from. And when these are said and done, it's the color that refuses to fade after washing, lingering to remind you of itself, like the blood of your efforts. 

It's the colour of the roses that decorate the world on Valentine's Day. Nearly 250 million roses of this color are sold on that day. Love is much bigger than this number but it's still this colour, still the colour of blood. 

It’s the color of chilies, sharp and burning, the fire that wraps around the insides of a body. When crushed, they bleed into oils and sauces, staining them with heat. Chilies are the blood of flavour for people like us, leaving behind a sting that makes you feel alive. 

It’s the color of autumn leaves, when trees shed their lifeblood in preparation for winter. When the chlorophyll seeps out, leaving behind hints of this color and of oranges, the veins of leaves are left exposed in this final departure. This solid blood seeps everywhere on the ground, across sidewalks and sparsely populated parks. 

And so this color bleeds. It's blood and beacons, dyes and deaths, life and rebirths, heat and honor. It's the longest wavelength on the spectrum of visible light and therefore, in the world that we see, humans have nothing beyond this color - it's the end of sight and the beginning of things much bigger. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, red to red.