Color of cold

Something about a blank sheet of white paper triggers a euphoric rush through my spine. It’s mostly because my brain conjures an imaginary black pen and mentally doodles on the bare sheet. As bizarre as it may sound, I feel like a dog that is excited to see a spot of moving red dot on a wall.
While it’s universally agreed that winter is the gloomiest season, I find myself having a familiar rush during this quarter. During winter, nature wipes its slate clean. The trees are bare, animals hibernate, earth is white and heat is turned off. A perennial chance given by nature to let our imagination run wild and fill those blanks with whatever we wish for. There are coconuts hanging from naked trees, with colorful African birds perch on its branches, singing. The incredibly sweet melody has calmed the usually boisterous chimpanzees, as they hang upside down drowned in the tune. The white roads are decorated with colorful ‘rangoli’ designs made by skillful women. Well… you get the point.
The gentle breeze that wafts across my after-shave smeared face has become part of my everyday routine these days. The chill is on borderline bearable, but the urge to feel the wind on the freshly menthol-ed face is similar to having a gulp of water after eating mint. It stings, but it feels good. While human beings cover themselves with immense layers to trap the body heat, it always made me wonder how cloth-less sparrows keep themselves warm during this season. They are probably the only sign of faunal life in the place I stay. They hop around collecting twigs, exhuming dead worms, shaking off snow from their tiny heads and anxiously calling for its mate. Well, it just makes me wonder how they survive the chill.
One thing that struck me odd was the portrayal of winter in movies. It’s always shown as a time of celebration and the holiday season. But the ‘real’ winter is felt only during the months of Jan and Feb. ‘Real’ people go about their usual routine during these two months as if nothing happened. (Of course there is an occasional grumble or two about having eaten too much during Christmas). There is no Santa Claus or Reindeers to help them trudge through the cold. But I guess that’s why Hollywood is so successful. They know how to fill the blank winter slate.