Sunday 31 May 2009

Sentence of sense!

Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. --Frances Moore Lappe

Sunday 17 May 2009

The joy of writing a letter

writing a letter always seems so real, so life-like force and so fulfilling. writing a letter after a long time, i realise how much i missed writing letters. i wrote. i loved the way it flowed and spilled over. the recipients were my students. well, the contents were mundane, here and there stuff but then, it had the imprint of the mind in ink and paper. words are magical especially when one knows that letters will be preserved, visited over and over and read and reread. it will always contain a part of me that was at that precise moment. in a way, the recipient partakes of what i had been when i wrote that letter. even years after, i will stand frozen in my letters and remain the person i used to be when the ink was spread on the blank paper at that time. i write because i like to write. i write because it preserves a part of me. i write because i know you will reply and not complain, 'i have no time for writing'. you will partake of me as you read my letter and then you will go back to it when you think of me. well, i might have changed from the person in the letter but my joy of writing a letter has not diminished.

await my reply as I await yours.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Places, People and Memories

That's a lovely amalgamation - places, people and memories! Many times the phrase 'I miss Bombay,' or 'I miss my school' gets me into a heavy duty thinking. Do the people miss the place because they miss the people or because of their memories of the place; do people make the predominant memories of people or is it the other way round? Smells, songs, food and many other aspects make memory but do all the afore mentioned qualities merge with people to give memories? Can't smells exist independently in someone's memory or for that matter can't songs exist independently? Well, its an intricate question which cannot be answered with a direct 'yes' or 'no'. Songs of a certain period are always connected to a love relationship of a certain age. Nothing can diminish the corny love song 'Nothings gonna change my love for you' by George Benson during the years when love flourished in school days which later gave way to 'Hello' by Lionel Ritchie and many more such songs. Now for places - certain corners where one cycled, certain shops where one had stick ice creams, etc are lovely memories which fade in and fade out (to use a term from cinematography). Now, the smells - the smell of the earth when it just begins to rain can conjure up the most romantic outbursts which is not age-specific. During various stages of my life so far, the smell of the earth has never failed to enthrall my being.

A recent conversation with a student of mine made me think of this topic. When he said 'The place X does not fascinate me anymore as all the people I used to know are no longer there.' Well, I asked him 'What about the place itself?' 'Does it not enliven you?' He replied with a blunt 'I don't know' and it led to a silence in the process of our conversation. Maybe both of us were thinking about places, people and memories.

An excerpt from a lovely love song by John Denver and something about memories too:

"Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict, full of pain
Like a fire when it's cold outside
Thunder when it rains
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you."

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