“Blueness doth express trueness,” said Ben Jonson; as the colour stands for honesty. Or he must have fallen for a blue-eyed blonde.

Blue naturally stands for water, skies and the sea. And moonlit nights. Since these are symbols of peace, blue has come to mean tranquility. Psychologists, especially colour therapists, say that looking at blue things also is supposed to lower the blood pressure. Some far-out ones also claim that blue will do its bit even when your eyes are shut. This is a good colour for hospital or school walls. Mental institutions have green or blue for their walls to soothe their patients, definitely not red! Blue is most people’s favourite colour. About 70%, actually. Half of that probably men having stag parties who prefer flicks of that colour. Is there a relation between 75% of the human body and 70% of the earth being water and our blue preference?

Blue can be so soothing, as opposed to stimulating, that it can go to the other extreme and be depressing. As in the blues, which are slow, sad, Afro-american numbers. Like when we say, “That hunk was in a blue funk.” Indigo dyers used to suffer from fits of depression, which could be the real story behind the idiom, “suffering from the blues.” But when art critics talk of someone’s blue period, like Picasso’s blue period, it doesn’t mean the dabbling dude was down and out, it means that this great artist, during this phase of his creative life, dipped his brush more into blue than paint of any other hue. And later, if he went into a ‘pink’ period, it also doesn’t mean he was bursting with health. Or painting only nude Venuses, a la Boticelli, emerging from shells!

What goes in pink and comes out blue?

A nude swimmer on a cold day!

Blue in art symbolizes eternity and immortality. B also stands for modesty and purity. Which is why the Virgin Mary’s cloak is usually shown blue. For artists, each colour has its temperature level, and blue is a cool colour. Wear blue in summer, you’ll look cool and inviting; wear it in winter, and you get the cold shoulder!

Some art teachers say silly things like, “Blue and green don’t go together.” Or poetically, “Blue and Green should never be seen.” What rot! Dip them in indigo, somebody. If that combo doesn’t work, I ask, nature would have had purple trees to go with the blue sky background, wouldn’t it? And what price the sea? The sea is sometimes green, and sometimes blue, and sometimes a mix of the two. My poetry!

“The Mediterranean has the color of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don't always know if it is green or violet, you can't even say it's blue, because the next moment the changing reflection has taken on a tint of rose or grey.” Vincent Van Gogh said so, can’t put it better than that. Sir C V Raman observed the Mediterranean and wrote his paper explaining why the sea was blue, the theory now known as the Raman Effect. Aquamarine, literally seawater, is a bluish green. It is exactly midway between green and blue. Turquoise, is bluish green too, but paler. Turquoise, French for ‘Turkish,’ as the stone of the same name, from which the colour got its name, was brought to Europe from Turkey those days.

“Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones... it will always stay blue; whereas yellow is blackened in its shades, and fades away when lightened; red when darkened becomes brown, and diluted with is no longer red, but another color – pink.” This is Raoul Dufy, the decorative French painter speaking. Artists choose from a range of blues: Ultramarine, Cobalt, Cerulean and Prussian, while women wear Electric Blue, Royal Blue, Peacock Blue and Sky Blue to name a few. Other blues are: Sapphire, Azure, Beryl, Indigo, Navy, Baby Blue, Cyan, Cornflower, Slate, Steel blue. Whew!

There’s an interesting story about the discovery of Prussian Blue, the first synthetic pigment. Until the 18th century, blue pigment was derived from crushed lapis lazuli, a blue semiprecious stone, imported chiefly from Afghanistan. This gave artists Ultramarine blue, a colour expensive to use, as lapis lazuli was costlier than gold. Vermeer’s ‘rich’ blues were Ultramarine. Other sources like the Indigo plant (Greek Indikon – Indian,) and Azurite (Copper ore, blue in colour) did not give trustworthy blues: they faded off or changed colour. Those days, rich blues gave the blues to poor artists!

There was this colourmaker, Diesbach, who was trying to make a new red. For this he mixed Iron Sulphate and Potash. Fortunately, for future artists, the potash he had was contaminated potash, and he got a deep blue instead. This colourman was from Prussia, by the way. This, fellow artists, is as historical for us as Fleming’s accidental discovery of Penicillin is for medical people.

Blue John is fluorite or calcium fluoride just as Black Jack is slang for lead ore in a mine. Blue beads are bullets as lead is a bluish metal. A blue pigeon is a thief who flies off with lead. A blue tit is not what you think. It’s a blue-headed bird called tit by the Brits. And its breast, ha, ha, is yellow! There’s also one called great tit, for your dirty info!

Cold water taps are marked with blue. A blue baby is an infant suffering from congenital cyanosis. Cyan means blue from the Greek word ‘kyanos.’ It’s the pure primary blue used in printing tech. Newborn boys are dressed in blue, and girls are in pink. This to make the infant’s sex clear to the curious visitor who otherwise has to peep under the covers. Shouldn’t they do the same thing with pets? Dogs are always referred to as a ‘he,’ even when he’s a bitch! We had a Dobermann who was grey but dog experts or caninists, to create new jargon, call that colour blue. ‘A blue billy’ is a blue handkerchief with white spots. ‘Out of the blue’ means unexpected, from nothing or nowhere while ‘into the blue’ means venturing into parts unknown, those parts marked with ‘Here be hippogriffs,’ on ancient maps.

White skin turns blue when bruised, hence the term, ‘beat black and blue.’ A blue ribbon of a profession is the highest honour one can attain, but is also a bruise resulting from a blow. A dark blue studied in Oxford or Harrow; a light blue is from Cambridge or Eton. In the West, blue is the colour of authority, manifest in the uniforms of the police, navy, airforce and factory workers. Blue jackets are sailors. A ship is about to sail when it hoists the Blue Peter. People who are about to sail also use the idiom. “I’m waiting for my passport; I’ll hoist the blue Peter any day now.” A blue bottle is a British cop. ‘Blue Collars’ are changing over from khaki collars to b collars in Indian factories lately.

Lufthansa has a stylized blue swan for its logo or symbol. ‘Luft’ is ‘blue’ in German and ‘hansa’ means swan. The same thing would probably be ‘Neelhamsa’ in Sanskrit. Ancient Indians used ‘Neel’ or blue to mean dark, too. For instance, ‘Anil’ means ‘not blue’ implying ‘not dark’ or ‘fair.’ The blue bull or Nilgai is the largest Indian Antelope.

When Julius Caesar attacked the Britons, he was confronted by screaming warriors in blue warpaint. They had dyed themselves with a vegetable dye, woad, to make them look fierce when they battle. Yeah, just like those wrestlers do on TV.

Blue laws are prudish laws of the US. Blue books are reports issued by the Brit govt. A blue stocking is a well-read lady or a school-miss type. But ‘blue talk’ or ‘Bibliothèque Bleu,’ in French, meant rude talk, that originating from women of easy virtue who had to wear a blue gown in jail. Could also be the origin of ‘blue’ referring to porn.

Point to consider: If they show a girl taking a bath, izzat a clean movie or a dirty one? A blue wonder is a cock-and-bull story just as a blue story is a cock-and-er..um..sorry, forget what I was going to say, ladies!

A blue moon is a rare phenomenon. It appears once in a blue moon! Blue Monday is the Monday before Lent, spent in having a good time. Probably with a glass of ‘blue ruin’ a.k.a. gin.

Few straightforward poets call blue blue. But if poetry is straightforward, won’t it become prose? Most poets call blue azure, especially when they are waxing p about the sky. “In robes of azure.” – Wordsworth. “ Not like those steps on heaven's azure.” --Milton.

Blue rhymes with two, and is useful for memorizing the year when Columbus sailed. “Something something something two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But unfortunately I forget the other three numbers. Sorry.

Whales, dolphins and seals, don’t have the visual pigment necessary to see the colour blue. They say it probably helps them see things clearly without being distracted by the everywhere blue.

A new concept is to have blue-coloured food for dieters: blue is not an appetizing colour as few natural foods are blue. They also advise eating off blue plates or having blue dining-room walls or a blue light in your fridge, which can also be blue. I swear on your head, it’s true!

We can discuss the hue till we are blue in the face or stop. Let’s stop. Red for “Stop.” Next on our list.