We went on a trail over the weekend, the obligatory blog is here. Turns out that the further you are from a city, the sunlight takes on various hues. And oh ! by the way, we saw a nice rainbow over Mulshi, so that was a good way to begin.
Coming back, I recall having made a special vocation of noting down the color of sunlight. For example, there are a couple of days in a year when the setting sun at dusk gets this brazenly golden glow with a pinch of scarlet or, the pale butter-milk color of the light when it cuts through smog and fog to land smack on your skin. Or, the first clear rays after a shower when the air is free of dust and other suspended particles and, the rays just cut a path on to the ground. Monsoon plays plenty of tricks with the sun. If there is cloud cover enough, the sun tends to beat down upon the ground and, the light appears to be coalesced around a human height from the ground – remember having to turn your eyes away from the dazzling brightness sometimes during monsoon ? At this point in Pune, the rising sun has shards of orange that land first on any object giving this strange halo to it. Beautiful to take in. The sunlight at Mumbai has a yellow tinge to it as if it was a “wash” of yellow color – not real yellow that has a mustard tinge to it – just a pale, slapdash yellow nature which fizzles out into extensive whiteness.
The palette varies widely. Last year at Boston and Westford, there was a marked difference in the color – Boston was dominated by a drab, dull paleness while Westford had this spanking whiteness and translucence. I noticed a similar variety at Delhi and NCR. It is great fun to watch outdoor photographs at flickr and, try to make a note of the fancy colors.
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