Olive Oyl to Purple Queen!

The vision of branding Guwahati as a Purple City, drawing inspiration from the Kopou phool (Foxtail Orchid), has made it's presence felt. Sherin’s lane has apparently decided that merely following the theme is not enough. It must lead from the front. 

For the uninitiated - Sherin's resides in Guwahati’s first purple lane.

There are some people who simply live in a lane. And then there are people whose lane gets chosen by history, government policy, municipality's enthusiasm and, possibly, divine intervention. My friend Sherin belongs firmly to the second category. Her lane has now become the first lane in Guwahati to be painted purple, and frankly, after looking at the evidence, I think the authorities made a very carefully calculated decision.

For starters, Sherin is elegant, and the chosen one. E.C. Seiger, who created Popeye's Olive Oyl in 1919 AD, must have had a premonition of a girl who'd be born more than six decades later in Shillong, and who'd uncannily resemble his creation, and would join the Batch of '97 in Gauhati Medical College! And the lane aspiring to become the first purple lane in Guwahati obviously could not have belonged to just anybody. Ans so, it was her lane, Sherin’s lane. Purple is a colour of royalty, sophistication, dignity and mystery. So naturally, the resident had to match the brief. Imagine choosing a lane belonging to someone who wears mismatched slippers, dons crumpled clothes, leaves the gate permanently open and argues with the vegetable vendor every morning. Impossible! The inaugural Purple Lane needed a woman of stature. It needed Sherin.

Secondly, Sherin is medical college faculty. This gives the entire project an academic credibility. If anyone asks why the lane has been painted purple, Sherin can immediately provide a scientific explanation. She can probably even classify the shade according to some biochemical pathway. “This is not ordinary purple,” she may say. “This is a clinically significant violet with strong administrative properties.” Nobody will dare question her after that.

Then there is her impressive relationship with official meetings. Sherin is frequently busy in government meetings, committees, discussions, consultations and probably in meetings about meetings!  Therefore, the government had to make sure that when she finally returns home after a long day of public service, she would have no difficulty identifying her lane. A purple lane is considerably more efficient than a house number.

There is another compelling reason for choosing Sherin - she has a college-going son. This is important because any major urban beautification project needs an impartial observer from the younger generation, the now-feared and much-revered Gen-Z. Her son can provide valuable feedback on whether the purple is “cool,” “too much,” “aunty-ish,” or “Instagrammable.” This is modern participatory governance.

The transformation itself is spectacular. The roadside blocks are purple. The electrical poles are purple. Even those enormous, unattractive boulders that previously served as temporary barricades for construction materials have been given a royal makeover. They have gone from looking like abandoned pieces of a prehistoric excavation to looking like they have been specially commissioned for the Purple Renaissance of our city.

The electrical poles deserve special mention. For years, they have stood in Guwahati looking tired, neglected and mildly offended by life. The bland greyish poles either had flashy posters of  a grumpy "KERO YOUNG" selling gems to cure everything from infertility to bad-luck, or were littered with tamul-juice (পিক) or lime (চুণ) smeared by idle rickshaw- pullers. Suddenly these poles have received a coat of purple paint and are standing tall in the lane with an entirely new sense of self-worth. Somewhere inside every pole, there must now be a tiny voice saying, “At last, someone noticed me.”

The boulders too must be experiencing an identity crisis.Yesterday they were construction debris. Today they are heritage feature. And tomorrow they may perhaps be plaques, “This historic purple boulder was painted during the inaugural beautification of Guwahati's Maiden Purple Lane.”

In due course, tourists will arrive, because the first one is always special. Children will take photographs. Geologists will become confused. Meanwhile, Sherin will be sitting at home preparing for a class or for a meeting, completely unaware that her neighbourhood has become a potential tourist attraction.

Other lanes in Guwahati are now under enormous pressure. A neighbouring lane, Samannay Path,  may be thinking, “I should also get painted.” But then comes the inevitable question, “Do you have a Sherin?” Because that is the crux! Not every lane has a Sherin. Not every lane has a medical college faculty who can move effortlessly from discussing biochemistry to attending a government meeting, from academic responsibilities to motherhood, while maintaining elegance throughout.

And certainly not every lane has a woman whose mere presence gives a municipality the confidence to experiment with an entire colour palette.

But perhaps the greatest achievement of the Purple Lane is that it has united things that normally have no business being united, like government beautification, construction debris, electrical infrastructure, municipal planning, academics,  medicine, motherhood and one exceptionally elegant woman. And perhaps that is why Sherin was chosen. Not merely because she lives there, not merely because she is faculty, not merely because she attends meetings, not merely because she has a Gen-Z son, not merely because she is elegant - but because if you are going to launch Guwahati’s first Purple Lane, you need someone who can carry the responsibility with dignity. You need someone who can look at a purple-painted boulder and behave as though this was always part of the plan. You need someone who can stand amidst purple poles, purple blocks and purple construction barriers and still look more sophisticated than the entire lane.You need a person who can turn a residential address into a landmark without asking for the publicity. That someone, obviously, is Sherin.

So, while everything in my city Guwahati is now confusing with a zillion flyovers,  roundabouts and service lanes, one thing is now certain - *If it’s purple, it must be Sherin’s.* 💜