how memories make up our lives
Today, after much postponement I was finally tidying up my almirahs. It is a marathon task and when we were in north (read Chandigarh and Delhi), the change of seasons would itself result in the reshuffling of almirahs and so tidying up would automatically be done (you know summer clothes and winter clothes…). But here in Mumbai with a similar weather throughout the twelve months, it was getting postponed since the last eight-nine months.
Oh! Did I say ‘similar weather’? Sorry!
How can I forget last year’s monsoon!!! which happened to be my first in Mumbai and what a warm (I mean wet) welcome did I receive!!!!
If you have ever lived in Mumbai, this question is not for you!!!
For the rest of you, here it goes…. Name one thing which you think can not have fungus on it and I will give you a first person experience of that yucky white-green sticky powder sprouting on that particular object!!!! The condition is that I should be in possession of that thing you lay your bet on!!!
I mean can you imagine wardrobe doors, plastic buckets, jeans and cable wires covered with fungus!!!! At this point let me clarify at the risk of sounding immodest that I maintain a fairly reasonable standard of cleanliness and hygiene in my house. But this moisture induced fungus was beyond me. Anything and everything that could catch ‘mumbai ki hawa’ was susceptible to fungus!!!!!
Last year I had vowed to myself that if I continue to be in Mumbai next year, I will get every single nickel and penny and every thing worth that sunbathed before the next monsoons.
So while I was doing that exercise I came across a bag which contained some rare memorabilia relating to my daughter’s first class, i.e her playschool in Noida!!!! It had the supposedly first line inscribed by her, her first craft (a painted deepak), and the first rhymes learnt by her.
I had clear intentions of not showing the treasure to her…I did not have the time or mood or the patience to show and explain each and everything to her. Besides I thought that currently she is small and the artifacts not that aged to have that desired antiquity.
But call it my bad luck, at that particular time, she appeared behind me, discovered the bag and asked my permission to have a peep into it. I could not say no and she was gone as fast as she came, with the bag.
When I was almost done with the bed box, I suddenly realized that I have not heard from her since a very long time and this was quite unusual, so leaving my work undone I set out to search her. And there she was, in the drawing room, surrounded by what I would call a sweet mess.
She had taken out all the contents of the bag, and was busy arranging them class-wise (pre-nursery and nursery). She was doing it with such meticulousness and concentration that my arrival to her side remained unnoticed (which is again quite unusual). She was perspiring and I thought that she had forgotten to switch on the fan. So, I switched it on and it caused all her papers to flutter. She gave me chilling threatening look and then I realized my folly. But the damage was done and everything was scattered on the floor.
To control her disappointment I offered to help her and so I sat down with her.
I started to show and explain the treasure to her but a surprise awaited me. She was just on the verge of forgetting all what she had learnt in the past years. She did not remember any of her past rhymes, she had forgotten her pre-school friends. There was a time when she would be singing all her rhymes one after the other the whole day, she would insist on going to school even on a weekend and now she had forgotten all of that!!!!
May be this is the nature’s way to help us to adapt to the changes in our lives. We forget things with the time, their memories may fade but those experiences stay with us in the form of character and psyche.
And so for the next hour or so, I showed her the things that have contributed to her learning, then her interest weaned and they all were packed to be unpacked some time in future again, but it was quite an experience for me!!!!!
And another cause of headache to Ankur, because now I am all the more attached to these memorabilia, and finding place to keep them in a Mumbai house is no less than a Herculean task!!!!
Oh! Did I say ‘similar weather’? Sorry!
How can I forget last year’s monsoon!!! which happened to be my first in Mumbai and what a warm (I mean wet) welcome did I receive!!!!
If you have ever lived in Mumbai, this question is not for you!!!
For the rest of you, here it goes…. Name one thing which you think can not have fungus on it and I will give you a first person experience of that yucky white-green sticky powder sprouting on that particular object!!!! The condition is that I should be in possession of that thing you lay your bet on!!!
I mean can you imagine wardrobe doors, plastic buckets, jeans and cable wires covered with fungus!!!! At this point let me clarify at the risk of sounding immodest that I maintain a fairly reasonable standard of cleanliness and hygiene in my house. But this moisture induced fungus was beyond me. Anything and everything that could catch ‘mumbai ki hawa’ was susceptible to fungus!!!!!
Last year I had vowed to myself that if I continue to be in Mumbai next year, I will get every single nickel and penny and every thing worth that sunbathed before the next monsoons.
So while I was doing that exercise I came across a bag which contained some rare memorabilia relating to my daughter’s first class, i.e her playschool in Noida!!!! It had the supposedly first line inscribed by her, her first craft (a painted deepak), and the first rhymes learnt by her.
I had clear intentions of not showing the treasure to her…I did not have the time or mood or the patience to show and explain each and everything to her. Besides I thought that currently she is small and the artifacts not that aged to have that desired antiquity.
But call it my bad luck, at that particular time, she appeared behind me, discovered the bag and asked my permission to have a peep into it. I could not say no and she was gone as fast as she came, with the bag.
When I was almost done with the bed box, I suddenly realized that I have not heard from her since a very long time and this was quite unusual, so leaving my work undone I set out to search her. And there she was, in the drawing room, surrounded by what I would call a sweet mess.
She had taken out all the contents of the bag, and was busy arranging them class-wise (pre-nursery and nursery). She was doing it with such meticulousness and concentration that my arrival to her side remained unnoticed (which is again quite unusual). She was perspiring and I thought that she had forgotten to switch on the fan. So, I switched it on and it caused all her papers to flutter. She gave me chilling threatening look and then I realized my folly. But the damage was done and everything was scattered on the floor.
To control her disappointment I offered to help her and so I sat down with her.
I started to show and explain the treasure to her but a surprise awaited me. She was just on the verge of forgetting all what she had learnt in the past years. She did not remember any of her past rhymes, she had forgotten her pre-school friends. There was a time when she would be singing all her rhymes one after the other the whole day, she would insist on going to school even on a weekend and now she had forgotten all of that!!!!
May be this is the nature’s way to help us to adapt to the changes in our lives. We forget things with the time, their memories may fade but those experiences stay with us in the form of character and psyche.
And so for the next hour or so, I showed her the things that have contributed to her learning, then her interest weaned and they all were packed to be unpacked some time in future again, but it was quite an experience for me!!!!!
And another cause of headache to Ankur, because now I am all the more attached to these memorabilia, and finding place to keep them in a Mumbai house is no less than a Herculean task!!!!
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