Hyderabad’s pink dawn

As Hyderabad turned pink on Wednesday thanks to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s (TRS) massive victory rally, the colour became the target of jokes, some quite cruel, on the social media.
As traffic jam updates set the Internet abuzz, so did the jokes and puns on the colour pink, which is traditionally seen as a ‘girly’ colour.
Kavitha K., party chief K. Chandrasekar Rao’s daughter and founder of the cultural wing, Telangana Jagruthi, tells us what the colour pink actually signifies to the TRS and the Telangana movement at large.

“The reason my father chose pink was because it was the perfect reflection of the Telangana movement as a passionate effort towards achieving the goal,” she says.
“It is a combination of white and red. While white stands for dignity, decency, transparency and sincerity, red depicts the passion and the sharpness of the movement,” she adds.
Almost every photograph or footage of the Telangana March Sagara Haram is dominated by the colour. And this too is significant for the party. “Even lighthouses are white and red. It’s the lighthouse that guides the boats to the shore and TRS wanted to be that guiding torch to the people of the region,” says Kavitha.
It has also been a belief that the TRS chose pink and the Telugu Desam yellow, because they are deemed as auspicious colours.
And yes, it is feminine and the party embraces that. “It’s a colour of compassion. Pink is also used in healing solutions and colour therapy as well,” she adds.
But does the “feminine quality” also apply to the party’s politics with so many new women’s faces showing up on the posters of TRS? “We have always believed in equal opportunity and want the movement to be a holistic one with everyone’s involvement. So yes, women are a huge part of it,” she says.
Meanwhile KCR’s son, KTR (Taraka Ramarao), tweeted: “Jaipur’s title of ‘Pink City’ henceforth belongs to Hyderabad. Big thanks to all those who gave a rousing reception to KCR. Jai Telangana!”
Some of the “nicer” posts included advertising professional and musician Ramesh Venkat’s update: “Since our politicians have got into this habit of fighting for one thing or the other, here’s the next political issue that’s likely to surface: Jaipur should be stripped of its title ‘Pink City’ since the colour truly belongs to Hyderabad, Telangana.”
Art critic and gallery curator, Avani Rao Gandra posted, “Pink icing on the cake. Jai Telangana” and young working professional Prathyusha noted, “Hyderabad today looks like city of ‘rose pink’.”