Dear Readers,
Many thanks indeed for sharing your comments and experiences.
S G Murali says: “I have started creating an endowment with Sankara Eye Hospital for the birthdays of all children and grandchildren. On the respective birthdays every year, the interest is used by the hospital to do free eye surgery for a poor patient.”
Shereyar Vakil says: “The topic of birthdays made me walk down memory lane remembering my own/siblings' birthdays when we were taken to our fire temple. If I compare that with the birthday celebrations of our kids today you can see how simple it was in the past.”
Capt Sarma says: “On the birthday which was celebrated on the basis of the star in the Malayalam calendar month, we would bathe early in the morning, wear new clothes and go to the temple. Celebrations consisted of a special lunch served on a plantain leaf with payasam.”
Rama Iyer says: “This post left me smiling and took me back to my childhood days when we celebrated birthdays according to janma nakshatra. Ayush homam was done and a sumptuous feast was prepared at home. We would then march off to school armed with chocolates for classmates.”
On this day in August 1774, Joseph Priestly discovered Oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state.
The True World of Blue
Over time many idioms around the word ‘blue’ have come into vogue. I find some of these idioms very interesting and thought I would share the meaning behind some of them. Hope you find it as interesting as I do!
"L'amour est bleu" (a French phrase meaning: Love Is Blue) is a song written by Pierre Cour in 1967 and it was set to music by Andre Popp. Later Bryan Blackburn wrote the lyrics in English. The lyrics are beautiful and capture the emotions of a disappointed lover. Click here for the lyrics.
The song describes the pleasure and pain of love. It was first performed by Greek singer Vicky Leandros. Later Paul Mauriat recorded the instrumental version. Click here to listen.
The word Blue has long been associated with sadness. Hence the expression ‘blue mood’. The 1969 album “In A Blue Mood” by the celebrated singer Talat Mahmood was a great hit. All the 12 songs in that album are melodious and melancholic — quite fitting for the theme! You can access the songs on YouTube and listen to them for yourself if you are a fan of Talat.
I start with ‘from out of the blue’ which means ‘unexpected’. If I were to use it in a sentence, I could say “Her resignation came out of the blue”. It is somewhat synonymous with the idiom ‘bolt from the blue’ which means ‘sudden and completely unexpected’. It is also used to add shock value to what you say, like “The Company laid him off, which was like a bolt from the blue.”
‘Once in a blue moon’ alludes to the rare occurrence of certain planetary movements when the moon acquires a blue shade. Consequently, ‘once in a blue moon’ is used when referencing something that rarely happens. The best example I can think of is my wife saying, “You are in town once in a blue moon. Why don’t you attend your son’s PTA meeting?”
‘Blue in the face’ seems to have its origin in a medical condition when a baby’s haemoglobin level drops and the blood is unable to carry oxygen around its body. The idiom is conversationally used when someone is pale from exhaustion due to the effort involved in doing something. Like a father telling his friend, “I argued with my son till I was blue in the face but he was in no mood to listen to me.”
You must have come across people who have cold anger. Well, the idiom for that is ‘to burn with a low blue flame’. It applies to situations when someone is very angry but says nothing and lets their face and body language make the offending person squirm. An example of the idiom usage could be “I could see my wife burning with a low blue flame when I forgot to wish her on our anniversary.”
Have you heard of ‘Big Blue’? I came to know recently that this was another name for the computer giant IBM. The stockbrokers can be heard to say “Stay invested in Big Blue shares to gain in the long run.”
‘Blue blooded’ is another quite popular idiom. It refers to someone hailing from Royalty or Nobility. According to phrases.org.uk, 'blue blood' is a literal translation of the Spanish 'sangre azul'. The explanation for ‘blue blooded’ comes from the fact that high-born people didn’t have to work outdoors. People who worked outdoors got suntanned, while people who didn’t had fairer skin. If the skin was pale enough, you could see the blood vessels underneath, which looked blue, rather than red.
Who is a ‘blue-eyed boy’? It has nothing to do with the colour of the eyes. It seems to have originated from the unconfirmed belief that a girl with blue eyes represented innocence. This idiom can be deployed in two contrasting contexts. It can be used scornfully and also as a compliment. You could say deprecatingly, “Though he does not deserve it, he gets promoted and rewarded because he is the blue-eyed boy of the boss.” Of course, it can also be used as a compliment. For example, you could say, “After her stellar performance Sindhu became the blue-eyed girl of the Badminton world.”
‘Blue-collar’ is an all too familiar phrase and means the working class. Apparently, blue was chosen as the colour of their uniform so that dirt and stain will not easily be seen. In sharp contrast, the expression ‘Men in Blue’ stands for the Indian Cricket Team.
Have you heard of the ‘blue pencil’? Editors used blue pencils to edit news articles. In a legal sense, Courts have applied the Blue Pencil Rule to strike down a provision of law without striking down the law itself. The Blue Pencil Rule was also used to separate an unenforceable provision of a contract without affecting the validity of the contract.
Blue is considered one of the rarest colours in nature, as it requires specific conditions for the human eye to perceive it. But there are still several natural beauties that are named for this hue.
Blue Lagoon is a famous spot in Iceland. Due to its high silica content, the water acquires a bluish tinge and hence this name. It is a geothermal pool where the water is warm even if the temperature outside may be less than 10 degrees celsius.
Our Blue Mountain, the Nilgiris (neela meaning blue and giri meaning hill) gets that name from the bluish flowers called Neela Kurinji (flowers). These flowers bloom once in 12 years and the hills are awash with blue colour for just a few days. It is a sight to behold. The last bloom was in 2018 and the next bloom is due in the year 2030 between July and October!! So add this to your bucket list along with Blue Lagoon, if you haven’t been to Iceland.
Finally the bluebird. A medium-sized insectivorous bird. Bluebirds have a blue or a blue, rose and beige plumage. Very pretty indeed!
Dear Readers, please share with me and the other readers any similar ‘blue’ idiom or phrase which has a special significance that you may know of. Thank you. Please be careful and pay heed to the warnings about the third wave and the delta variant. See you next week.
Pras opened a floodgate of Blues.
I was not aware of the terms Blue pencil and Blue flame.
Navy Blue is the dark blue color of Naval winter uniform. It also stand for persons who are outstanding sportsmen who represented the Navy and wear the Navy Blazer.
Peacock blue is another shade of blue which is a very pleasing color.
Blue book lists the order of precedence for VIPs which is the reference book for protocol department of the government. Blue Danube is the river which flows through ten countries in Europe. Blue Danube is also the unofficial national anthem of Austria.
Indian Navy graduated to a Blue Water Navy from a Coastal Navy once it acquired a tanker (for refueling at sea) and an Aircraft Carrier.
Thank you Pras for activating my memory banks.
Reminds me of Monday Blues 😂🙈