NOSTALGIA

We had been to the mall one of these days when the printed words on a Tee worn by a shabby, unkempt boy caught my eye. Talking of malls - they seem to have sprouted up all over the city these days, and a few more are in various stages of life- but now I am digressing from the Tee. Well, it read “Of all the things I lost, I miss my mind the most”-from the movie Kiss of Death, if I am right. That set me thinking-undoubtedly one of those rare happenings. What is it that I miss the most?? I started making a mental list-I mean a list in my mind. The more I thought, the longer the list seemed to grow. That surprised me-I have always prided myself on being a very unsentimental person-but this growing list meant that I am a bad judge of character-even mine! There would be time for more such self-analysis later, now on to my list:

How many of us remember seeing a sparrow in our neighborhood? Or for that matter, a squirrel-how long ago was that? Where have these sweet chirpy little creatures gone? Squirrels invariably bring my grandma to mind. She had mastered the art of nocturnal story telling-actually by repeatedly telling the same story. She probably took Bruce Lee’s advice too seriously-to practice repeatedly and master one single stroke so that you become unbeatable in that. Her story every single night was from the Ramayan-the rescue of Sita by Ram from Lanka with the help of the Vanarsena by building the Sethu across the seas. The most eagerly awaited part of the story was the part played by a little squirrel which contributed its mite to building the bridge. My grandma’s hand would turn into the squirrel and playact the tiny animal jumping into the water, wetting its skin, rolling on the sand, rushing onto the bridge and shaking the sand onto the bridge adding its humble contribution to the mighty construction activities. Our little fella catches Lord Ram’s eyes with his enterprising endeavors, who lifts it up and strokes its back fondly. So, that’s why you see the lines on the squirrels back even to this day, says my grandma and we are thrilled to bits to hear that. Now there are no squirrel stories and no squirrels either. With the electro magnetic waves from the mushrooming mobile towers effectively driving out sparrows, we are resigned to watching them on the NatGeo channel.

The next in my list is darkness and silence-doesn’t the very mention of these words bring back our childhood phobias? I’ve figured out why children are smarter and bolder these days. The absence of complete darkness and silence must be the primary reason. Wonder how many households still use a night lamp with the zero-watt bulb? We’ve all heard of great men like Abe Lincoln who studied under the street lights at night (and probably wondered why the heck couldn’t they have studied at daytime). These days you don’t have to go as far as your street. Your entire neighborhood is almost floodlit through the night. May be your future doesn’t look so bright but your city definitely looks so. Our city slickers are star-struck and would love star-gazing, no doubt but not by the heavenly kind but the celluloid kind. The stars and planets were just out of reach in those days, but now they are out of sight too. With the city lights burning so bright all through the night, the stars have lost out to them-yes, the city lights outshine the stars. Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Milky Way-what’s that-sounds like an ice cream parlor? The city never sleeps? You bet! Add to it the cacophony assaulting our ear drums every waking and sleeping moment. And no, I’m not talking about what goes in the name of music these days. There’s no respite from the traffic noises, electric/electronic appliances and add to these the worst of all-a high decibel assault from your spouse all through the night-yes, the dreaded snore. It helps not only to develop a thick skin in today’s world, but also an extra-thick ear drum.

I’m just half-way through my list but I’m already feeling so overwhelmed with nostalgia. I would have loved to rave and rant about watching the home-coming birds, wading through dirty puddles of rain water, community-viewing soporific programs on black and white television sets, listening to the transistor radio (is it already extinct?), life with snoopy but entertaining neighbors etc. etc. But I’m glad that I appreciated the amazing experiences that I’ve gone through. Because we see many of our friends who failed to enjoy their life and realize rather late in life that yesterday’s scraped knees are better than today’s broken hearts.