Some local color

One thing we noticed about India this year is that the price of paint must have come down.

In the previous 10 years, almost every house, shop or office building was a dreary off-white.  The entire architectural color range, for the most part, ran from a yellowish off-white to a greenish-off-white to a beige-ish off-white.

And almost all of those off-whites were streaked or mottled with the greenish-gray or black of mildew — thanks to the monsoon, during which nothing dries completely.

In those years, paint cost as much or more in India than paint back home, in real dollars — but Indian wages were vastly lower than Americans'.  So paint was extremely expensive.

Suddenly, all of that has changed, as demonstrated by this building just up the street from our hotel.

Every day it seemed, some building in Kerala would catch our eye, decked out for the first time in tones that were, well, not exactly drab, dreary or boring any longer.

On TV, it seemed, half the commercials were for Asian Paints or a competitor.  

One of the big new, showy, glass-front stores at a major Thiruvananthapuram intersection is a paint shop — with rows and rows of off-white-labeled paint cans displayed in the windows, both upstairs and down, arrayed on gleaming red shelves.

Orange or, officially, "saffron,"  is one of the main colors on the Indian flag. It's always been popular in saris and churidars.  Suddenly, people aren't just wearing it.  They're living and working inside it— and in other textile hues — as well.  (More about orange, later...)

At first, the crayon-bright colors in Kerala architecture startled us, both for their intensity and for their, um, creativity in use.  Which is to say, some of the combinations were head-turning, for better or worse.

For example:

A bright, clear yellow house with royal blue trim.

A dark purple house with white trim — and startlingly, and most unfortunately, a bright orange tile roof. 

A house in periwinkle blue with butter-colored trim. 

In shade under the canopy of coconut trees, a large royal blue house, with hot pink trim.

A forest green house with white accents.

A dwelling in a color I can only describe as "raspberry sherbet" — with artificial coloring added. 

And there are other food shades as well, such as Tang powder.  And pistachio ice cream green.

A soothing combination, compared with most: Deep teal with royal blue window frames. 

But probably the best looking of all:  A deep orange house with a dark red trim.  It may sound garish, but it was actually handsome.

But as I said, more about orange later...