Two Thoughts on Nostalgia

  Two Thoughts on Nostalgia

Of late I am coming across many nostalgic articles, pics and videos of those good old vintage years back in 80s and 90s. Too many but they are indeed nostalgic, certainly giving goose bumps and make you not to shrug off those days from the memory in the midst of current revolution of mobile and smart devices. Truly so, kids born in 80s and 90s have witnessed almost every technological inventions and innovations right from the heavy 12-channel cathode ray TV sets to the remote controlled lucid LED screens. Not just technology, it is also in the manner how we have been receptive of those inevitable changes going on around us. Majority of them were trend setters, weren’t they? Take a trivial case of men’s trousers itself. First were the star-look bell bottoms, then came the formal parallels, next came the official slim-fits and tapers. And not to forget, that our generation was the first owners of denim jeans apparels.

Every other horizon you were or are acquainted with has perpetually presented those trends which ultimately moved many a thing out of fashion; be it a video game, a TV serial, a sport or sometimes people themselves. Yes, Sports too. And that has been the sole point in my mind all along while nagging about nostalgia.

Though hailing from a small town, I would rather consider myself lucky playing many outdoor sports in those days. I’ve come across both, popular ones like cricket, football and badminton and less popular ones like Kho-Kho, Kabaddi and Volleyball. I’ve a very genuine reason to draw the line between popular and less popular. And by all means less popular does not imply they are unpopular; they are popular but relatively in much lesser degree than the mainstream popular ones. Some of you may disagree on this observation which is humbly acceptable. Nevertheless, these sports are officially recognized by institutions all around and they will sustain even if they keep shrinking in their popularity amidst all the onslaught of computer and video games.

Parallel to these, there are or were many outdoor games which have become so rare to be seen among the current generation kids. There was this gilli-danda and there was that Lagori. There were marbles, there were tops and then there were kites. Indeed, they’ve become so rare except in few rural parts, children of this generation are surely oblivion to these traditional games. These are the very games that still make me feel nostalgic and bring back those childhood memories of the bloody injuries, unforgettable escapes and hilarious jokes.

I can still recount the incident which brought upon a scar on my forehead while playing the Top. Those free falls off the tree while trying to free the kite from its branches. And on one occasion, unawares to my senses my palms were covered with bloody scratches in the process of coating kite’s thread using some glue amalgamated with glass powder.

Sometimes, when we are discussing these games and the memories that one has about them are so refreshing and rejuvenating. They quietly make you feel elated and for once your complex problems look simpler and sometimes seem irrelevant. Unlike the mainstream and scholastic games which are either too popular or officially recognized, the games of folklore are highly traditional with no rule books and word of mouth has been the lonely means of publicity for them. The lesser this generation knows about them the lesser its next generation will be aware of such games. May be a decade or two from now, it looks quite imminent that these games would just be stories and disappear or dissolve into the unwritten pages of the folklore. Hoping against hope that they will sustain just like the less popular games and that they continue to spawn their charm among the young and the future generations.

Shantaram

Shantaram who? Or atleast how does the name sounds? i guess most of you could think of the name for a swamy or a saint or for a religious chanting. Well, let me keep it for myself for a while , but not too long jus before i finish this blog.

Many of you must have read sensational, thrillin, mind-blowin, romantic, hard-to-put-down, suspense, heart-throbbin.... oh man, will i jus runout of words to club all kinda categories from the world of novels? i should guess so. Whatsoever, every book has its own literature to unveil at expose! exaggeratin the art of thought-to-hand.

But this one novel i finished turnin pages recently had it all, all the stuff that could be enjoyed in all the categories of books, i mentioned before, put together. A stubborn classic work of literature, and i mean the word stubborn with intensity.

Moreover, what surprises about this book is its an autobiography of a criminal elaboratin deep aspects of his life. The chronology of events is so acutely recollected from the memory banks which makes the book look more fictional, infact some part of it is, than non-fictional.

Nevertheless, its a complete capture of emotions right through a smile to laugh, anxiety to rage, scary to horrible, pale to sorrow, sobbin to outcry, like to love, foe to friends, sick to worse, betray to promise, owe to favor, fate to luck.... oh my god! thats infinite but worth mentionin. So much more to each and every character, that appear inline to the story.

Theres so much enough and voluminous wisdom all along the book, in every page, with well-tailored reality and philosophy. And let me put it straight that, its not like any philosophical volume penned by someone like Paulo coelho.

The guy then was a freakin criminal ( did wrong things for right reasons ) and now a philanthropist who along with his wife and others has set up charity in the name of "Heart For India", heartforindia.org, to serve the destitutes of the country he loves and owes so much, thats India. And to add more, one of its center is in Mylapore, Chennai.

Above all the book deals most of the time answerin "How to move on?" and i bet u'll certainly find an answer to atleast one of the difficult questions of ur life. Its a damn dashin read, you jus could not resist yourself to miss a word.Well, i cannot further reveal the insights of the beauty of this remarkably impressive autobiography. I dont either expect critics or force you to read the book.

All i can say, about the book, is "You would love to be a criminal after readin this book."

Explore it yourself! its kinda "must-read" or precisely "dont-miss" category.

Veg-Non-veg

Before i scribble anything further, i just want to stay out of taking sides, neither  Vegetarian nor Non-vegetarian  columns.  More than taking sides, i do not imply anything  about my likes and dislikes.

Since childhood, I have been constantly spectating debates on  veg and non-veg  and often ended up with a dilemma like “whether the egg came first or the hen?”.  Well nothing can be changed as of now, its footprinted in the minds  of people.  Yes, let me have the definitions first,

Herbivorous ,  generally called the vegetarians are a class of people/animals who depend upon  the  “natural food” stuff  (intentionally quoted ).

Carnivorous, the “flesh eaters” (again, intentionally quoted) with prefix tag of Non to vegetarian. And last but not least, the omnivorous class, i just zip it out of discussion.

Ok now, i would like to mention our very own Indian scientist, Sir J C Bose who made a startling discovery of this mysterious nature; that each and every plant on this earth respire, more simply put they too breathe like humans.

 And by all means, correct me if the following interpretation is wrong:  Breathing certainly defines life and none of you would miss the missing piece, i.e, a plant is ultimately “natural flesh”.  Now i seriously don’t have clue where in the world the words veg and non-veg emerged from, probably from vegetables i guess!.

Those who eat  “natural flesh” would still be skeptic of the above and definitely compel a debate. Frankly,  I’ve nothing personal to their sentiments. Its just  my opinion about this long running debate “veg- non-veg”. Also for those who eat “literal flesh”, nothing personal again.

No idea how to conclude?, but one thing is for sure, if there is this debate out in the open then atleast one layman from the first class of people will wave the banner “SAVE ANIMALS” and as to apply Newton’s third law, atleast one layman from the latter class of people will wave the banner “SAVE TREES”.

Save trees or save animals, both are an integral part of this nature maintaining the thin wire of ecological balance and we are well aware of the fact since our school science. Professionaly speaking, you do have to provide a lot of documented proof to enable and convey something like the one in the picture, so i kinda pulled it from Veg-Non-Veg dumb stuff and drag it to "Save the planet".  Sounds ridiculous, like this or not, critics most welcome.