Skip to main content

I have no nostalgias


Nostalgia wipes away bad memories and magnifies good ones, says Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his autobiography, Living to Tell the Tale.  [I have modified his words a little and hence no quotation marks.]  Now I know why I have no nostalgias.  It’s very amusing when I come to think about it. 

I lived in quite a few places in South India, and then in Shillong and Delhi.  I lived with all sorts of people in these places, people belonging to different religions, castes, tribes, and cultures.  These places and people have given me a lot of memories but no nostalgia whatever.  

There were so many funny people who provided a whole lot of entertainment to me all along the way.  However, those experiences become entertainment only when I look back from the distance of today.  Standing on “a heap of broken images” of an Eliotean Waste Land, I have little to long for from those days which are lost permanently (and mercifully?) anyway.   

My fears and desires, joys and sorrows were all real.  Did my fears and sorrows outweigh my joys and fulfilments?  I’m not even sure.  I have reached a stage when the answer to the question doesn’t matter at all.  Was it all worthwhile?  That’s a question which arises in the core of my being more frequently than I would like it to.  Could I have helped it anyway whether it was worthwhile or not?

If I could walk the same paths once again, I would do the whole trekking in a different manner.  But the funniest thing about life, I think, is that by the time you learn the lessons that really matter you are too old to need those lessons.  

I have no regrets, however.  Regrets are futile burdens on the soul, quite as futile as nostalgias perhaps. Decisions make the difference.  Decisions belong to the present.  They shape the present.  Where else can we live but in the present?



Comments

  1. Purba chakrabortyOctober 23, 2017 at 8:50 PM

    So true! It's best to live in the present.
    Thought provoking post :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rajeev MoothedathOctober 24, 2017 at 7:49 AM

    "But the funniest thing about life, I think, is that by the time you learn the lessons that really matter you are too old to need those lessons"- interesting observation!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Renu VyasOctober 24, 2017 at 10:07 PM

    Absolutely loved this post Sir and can so relate to this..like you said, I too might have done things in a different way if given a chance but I have no regrets..I learnt from them and the experiences made me wiser..some may call me a cynic but I am what I am :) Thank you for sharing such a lovely post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 25, 2017 at 7:38 AM

      Glad to get this comment, Renu. I'm called a cynic by some. But I know I'm more positive in outlook than people credit me for. I live in the present.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

My New Years

Image created by Copilot Designer Each New Year of mine was invariably overshadowed by the preceding Christmas. My entire childhood was lived out in a remote and nondescript village of central Kerala where electricity arrived when I was in high school. New Year meant nothing more to the villagers than the replacement of the old wall calendar with a new one. Just like the earth which went on revolving around the sun without ever knowing the human markers of time, the villagers continued their routine life on the first of January too in their farms. The Christmas hangover would linger, however. The crib was still there waiting to be removed. The star made of bamboo strips and mist-resistant paper was already brought down in all probability. Most people couldn’t afford to maintain, beyond a week, the oil lamps or the paraffin wax candles which were lit inside those stars with much care and caution. The crepe paper decorations in the crib would have begun to sag. There was no plastic i...
16 comments
Read more

Koorumala Viewpoint

  Koorumala is at once reticent and coquettish. It is an emerging tourist spot in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. At an altitude of 169 metres from MSL, the viewpoint is about 40 km from Kochi. The final stretch of the road, about 2 km, is very narrow. It passes through lush green forest-looking topography. The drive itself is exhilarating. And finally you arrive at a 'Pay & Park' signboard on a rocky terrain. The land belongs to the CSI St Peter's Church. You park your vehicle there and walk up a concrete path which leads to a tiled walkway which in turn will take you the viewpoint. Below are some pictures of the place.  From the parking lot to the viewpoint The tiled walkway A selfie from near the view tower  A view from the tower Another view The tower and the rest mandap at the back Koorumala viewpoint is a recent addition to Kerala's tourist map. It's a 'cool' place for people of nearby areas to spend some leisure in splendid isolation from the hu...
30 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
14 comments
Read more

Three Poems

Illustration by Copilot Designer 1.      Anachronism Ekalavya is eager to learn Unlike his contemporaries Who are buried in digital graves.   ‘What’s anachronism?’ He queries. ‘Anachronism is,’ says Bharadvaja, He pauses, muses, and pronounces: ‘Sita Devi’s chastity was questioned By a barber named Al Ansari bin Laden, According to the latest grave-digging Of Archaeological Survey of India.’     2.      Exorcist   History textbooks are haunted by the ghosts Of Akbar and Babur and Gandhi and Nehru. So the Prime Minister decides to become The Exorcist of the nation In order to save Ekalavyas From graves that refuse to be Closed by sward shroud.     3.      Redemption   Ekalavya opens his new history textbook. Words look like petrifying ghosts That want blood, Ekalavya’s blood. So he chooses to leave his country And settle down in Tr...
8 comments
Read more