Welcome to colourful Sorrento!
Walking around Sorrento is a colourful experience. Sorrentinis know how to dazzle you and grab your attention with their art, crafts, and handiwork.
As I walked around town, tickled pink with visual delights, I was deeply aware that I was seeing the world quite differently from my wife. She is normal, while I am colour blind (deficient). I first discovered something was wrong with me in the early days of primary school. (I never went to kindergarten – my parents could not afford it.)
In primary school, my art teacher scolded me for painting the sea purple, flowers green, and leaves red. I accepted my handicap, and to this day, I am utterly devoid of confidence in colour recognition. When I reached A-level, things became serious. We had to do titrations in a chemistry laboratory class, and colour changes determined the endpoint. I must use the exact volume of chemicals at the endpoint for further calculations. At this point, my teacher advised me to seek medical advice.
The medical consultation confirmed officially that I was colour deficient (blind). When I sat my high-stake A-levels examination (called the Higher School Certificate or HSC), I did not have to do any titrations. The invigilator gave the results to me in a sealed envelope. All I had to do was to open the envelope, look at the figures, and proceed with calculations.
Look at the sample of Ishihara charts used to test colour discrimination below. I have selected three examples with the help of my wife. What do you see? They all look like coloured bubbles to me, with no discernible pattern.
So, what does that mean in life for me? It means asking my wife about the colour of the clothes I have selected and intend to buy. Passengers in my car will find it strange when my wife prompts me when we arrive at traffic light-controlled junctions. (It is not that dangerous! I “know” the colour of the lights by their relative positions). I am lost in colour-coded maps such as the London Underground.
What else? Colour blindness has also shaped my thoughts and feelings from the early days. What is reality? What is truth? What is knowable and what is not? Many years later, I discovered even ordinary people have different opinions on the colour they see – for example, the colour of a dress. And this phenomenon resulted in a dispute that divided the world in the internet age.
To be continued in Part II
Vince
Dr Vincent Chong is a retired Professor of Radiology at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
