Friday, July 6, 2007

Memories

It was my sis’ birthday on 4th; the day she was born was also my first day at school. The only memory I have of that day is of my dad coming to the school to take me to the hospital, I got a half-day on the first day itself. I don’t remember whether or not I cried before going to school that day, but I guess I must have. I don’t even remember going to the hospital or how my sister looked the day she was born. Sometimes when in novels a writer describes the feelings of the elder sibling when the younger one is born, I so much wish to know what my feelings were then, how I reacted looking at my sis, holding her for the first time. I so much wish that I could write a retrieve command and lo! I have the file of that memory staring at me. (tch tch, what has the s/w industry done to me?!)

These days it’s so easy for parents to chronicle their kid’s childhood, but cameras were not so common those days and going to the studio was an occasional affair. So the earliest pictures of my sis were taken when she would have been around six months old (or even older, I am not sure.). There is one pic of ours together, she sitting on a chair smiling toothlessly and me standing in attention position and looking at the camera angrily. Don’t remember whether I was actually angry at that time or in the pic I came out that way.

I always wonder how we remember and forget things; there are some things of seemingly no importance, which stick to us all our lives. Like say, I still have this picture in my mind, a memory of the time when I would’ve been 4-5 years old.

I am standing on the stairs of my old house, there is someone else sitting and asking me a question about Rajiv Gandhi. I remember neither the question nor who asked it, but I remember being asked a question, just that. This is what I call a forgotten memory.

Sometimes I feel if I hadn’t gone to school and college my memories would be totally disorganized. The time frame of many things I remember is associated with what class I was in then. So I remember that we had gone to Puri after 5th std. and Ooty after 8th,K2H2 was released when I was in 9th std. and K3G in 12th etc etc. Lets see what methods my mind devises to remember the time frame of things now that I am done with college also. Maybe I’ve found some sort of an organizer in this blog, maybe after 10 years I will scan my archives to read the same very post and think, “Ok, I thought of this when I had just finished an year at work.”

Memories are just one aspect of the human mind that amuses me; I also grapple with other aspects of the inexhaustible mystery at times. Will post about the insights and observations as and when I get any, till then happy discovering!

6 comments:

desh said...

thinking about memory is real crappy, like i remember K3G was released on 14th Dec'05, 5 days after the JEE screenings, Kaho na Pyar hai on 14th Jan'00 and so on...
Bestest memory ever when I saw my sister for th frst time, i was older than 4 tht time so it does help in mapping those memories
but i thnk its better to keep thngs in mind, u get a better picture...

God gave us a 100000000 Terra Bytes harddisk, so we shud use it nicely enuff :)

Pingu said...

I have a photographic memory for things that happened 20 years ago but I'm the sort of person who is capable of hunting for the mobile phone while I'm on a call!

Sur said...

@desh
ya even i remember i dint go to watch K3G coz i was upset after the JEE screening, but u remember the dates too! 8)
but still pics help u in remembering u wud otherwise forget.
so many TBs!! I am not using even a fraction of it i guess.

@pingu
relieved to know tht someone as absentminded as me exists! even I do tht often! :)

Smartalec said...

first of all, please convey my belated happy birthday wish to shivani :)
hey! come to think of it, even i dont remember a lot about the pre-wonder years! but i so wish i could remember so much. pics... ah well, they're there but hard to associate them with incidents, events, etc.
got me nostalgic, this post of urs!
hope u had a wonderful weekend doing what u do best ;) ... atleast i had a great time doing what i'm best at (nowadays that is :D)

Sur said...

@SA
sure, I will.
Stevie, i am sure u become nostalgic even at the mention of the word 'Memory'! :D
ya, me had a great time rappelling and rock climbing, donno abt thomson though! :P
and sm1 was supposed to call me to tell me the details?

enginerd said...

That school thing you mentioned is actually pretty much the same case with me.
The fact that I passed VIII in '98, IX in '99, X in '00... makes it that much easier. It allows me to easily point an event to something like "the summer of 96.." and all.
No need to tax the grey matter processing whatever little data I usually am able to retrieve.