Asian homes seem crude, crass & downright poor vs Postcard-perfect Euro Locations

Italy, Spain and European nations have never been ashamed of very colorful walls, their homes always brightly shaded and vibrant but here, in Asia, the story is rather different - it seems that dwelling in real colors are associated with being stupidly uneducated about the elite, more educated things in life. While places like Burano Island in Italy can boast of Venetian homes lined-up in the entire shade-card of a rainbow, places like Hong Kong and Beijing might have mighty sky-scrapers but the overall color scheme is disheartening, dull and predictable. Here, the love with grays and sleek blacks and browns does not seem to go away.



While European coastal towns and villages that seemed untraceable on the world map until recently are now becoming charming enough to attract loads of tourists every season, some of the most heavily trafficked Asian cities continue to be covered in layers of visual drab. Yes, it is true that Europe is perhaps the most colorful destination in the world in terms of homes and buildings being painted in happier colors. This is not just about the cities in Europe. Take the case of Juzcar in Spain. This is not a metropolis. I seriously doubt the people here have truckloads of money to spend on property renovations.

Still, the village-town kind of location is bathed in shades of marine blue, blues so intense that you can spot them from an outer galaxy. If you have to compare capital cities, try Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Agreed, this is not your usual cosmopolitan locale but it happens to be Europe’s tiniest cities and still, despite the barrenness of its wilderness, the countryside is dotted with seriously vibrantly colored homes. Most of these city-scapes come without the adulteration of IT crowds or outsourcing madness. The low-rise houses have been put together rather fundamentally, almost with primitive engineering. The multicolored low-rises are more photogenic than some of the most popular vacation destinations in India.

These postcard-perfect locations seem to have the right mix of external cultural influences and some globalization without losing their essence. Here, in Delhi it seems we are back to medieval times of occupying whatever piece of land you can grab, forgetting that kitchen gardens add personality to the city and well-kept markets deliver more exuberance rather than diesel-heavy SUVs!