Paint the town pink!

Yes, literally. Why does this story put songs like Paint it Black (substituting Pink for Black), or Lily the Pink in my head?

Residents of a depressed eastern Indian town are painting it pink in a bid to boost morale and cut crime. Can you imagine a whole city painted pink? I have a feeling that the will either drive the towns people nuts or cause more crime, but that’s just my personal opinion.

Aurangabad, in India’s Bihar state, was a hot bed of Maoist rebel activity, and suffered from killings, extortion, kidnapping, and inter-caste wars says Arvind Kumar Singh, a senior local government official. So instead of fighting the crime and catching the rebels they ordered several cans of paint. Uh huh.

“We are hoping that the color pink, which is soothing and pretty, will erase these blots from the past and make the town look attractive,” Singh said of the initiative, which kicked off in June. I thought the colour green was supposed to be a calming colour and that that was why it’s used in prisons and clinical therapy areas so often? I wonder which shade of pink they choose or if they used many different shades?

The prettier-in-pink concept came from the dominant Rajput community, who moved to Bihar from the western desert state of Rajasthan, whose capital, Jaipur, is known as the “pink city.” So they’re just copying another cities idea?

I wonder if their pets have to wear pink now too? This poor pup doesn’t look very happy in pink:

Do you think that changing the colour of a city will really work to lessen crime? Would you feel calmer surrounded by pink?

Talk to me.