There is a new tv commercial for a lemon soft drink – it reminds a chap of gully cricket as a kid and homemade nimbupani. How often does this happen to us? A smell, a texture, a taste, an old song that catapults us down memory lane to a different time.
Everyone has things they like to remember and things they dont. More often the “like list” gets longer as we older and more sentimental about good ol’ days 🙂 Selective memory they call it. Seems like what you remember may depend on you are… or are you a certain kind of person because of what you remember?
A dear friend of mine and I once spent long hours around a coffee table telling a third person about our years at university together. He had a dark doomed version of how wasteful those years were while I gushed on about those fabulous carefree days actually shaped me… at the end of the conversation, our patient listener had one question – “did you both study in the same place??” 🙂 I assume with that she sized up the two of us and sealed us into separate categories.
So the question is – do we make memories or do memories make us?
Anjali Menon 
Just heard this song a couple of weeks back:
http://www.malayalasangeetham.info/php/SongDetails.php?sid=4597&encode=utf
Gosh, I last heard this in 1979/80 in Cannanore (although I’m from Calicut) – when coming home for vacation from Ooty. I must have been in 7th standard!
The emotion is not mere nostalgia. It’s something deeper. Almost a sense of timelessness.
And here’s another gem – Katturumbe
http://www.hummaa.com/music/song/Katturumbe/74519
great…. i think memories make us
wow…!! what a thought to ponder upon! Memories or reminiscence is a seductive liar! It removes the patchy edges from the good old days, so that the contentment in recollection is close to perfection! Again, it is each of our perception!
it was a short and sweet piece!
the emotion you are feeling right know about a memorious incident long time back and what u felt at that very moment may hav difference. A very big fight you had with ur friend at that time will be a serious thing for u. But now when u think of it, it will bring smile to your face. For a same guy if it is different then for two whole different persons how it will be?? I want to make my memories (good) and i dont want my memories (bad)to have influence on me.:-):-).
Surely, memories make us. We might not have a say on what happens to us, but whatever happens leaves an impact in our psyche. We anticipate, panic, hope, or flee from a present situation depending on the impact of these memories. Some threat them as experience that liberate them. For some others, they are chains that hold them back.
we cant make memories or memories cant make us, i think..
its experience that made us n memories make us creative & imaginative. memories make life live!
is it not that we make memories? after all our memories are associated with our existance, aren’t they? if we were not there, had our memories been existed? when we move past the curtain of time, those memories also get vanished. I think It’s the time the villain and the hero.
“do we make memories or do memories make us?”
Hmmmn, it is quite a question………..I spent around 10 minutes to find my own answer, and I am yet to find a conclusion……..let me ponder over it again……and if you find the answer please share with us all…
my nostalgia kicks in after i come back back from kerala…..but then oddly it only stays for 2 day. probably because i get caught with the busy life here and I barely get time to think about vada, sambar, avial, pulissery and all the other good stuff. looking forward to those moments soon!!!!!!!! YUM
AND BTW Ms.Menon are you working on any new projects now?
even i too curios about your new project Ms.Menon.
good films are still accepted….
🙂 good, bad or ugly i dont know – but am trying to do something i believe in. Hopefully you should see something come up sooon!
it might be true that we make memories at the beginning but later …
those memories makes out life …(i say memories rather to say it as experience , because i have been listening to that word”experience in all my management class now i actually have no idea about the real meaning of that)…
few days earlier had a repair with my bile so i had to walk 2 km to my home…
i wondered …….
even it was the same way i go by bile all days ….
the road wasn’t tarred yet..
it was by the bank of field of rice ….
we friends walked a lot through there ,,i badly wanted those days again…
like the lyrics of “summer of 69”, i would say “those were the best days of my life….”
Memories are an integral part of whatever we do. To what extent our memories influence our thoughts and actions…we might not even know! Same goes for the taste buds. I remember putting up a Facebook status when a vada pav I recently had brought tears to my eyes because it tasted exactly like the vada pav from my school canteen! Reminded me of that scene from Ratatouille where Ego-the critic is transported back to his childhood. Now again, may be Brad Bird or someone close to him had had an experience like this, which resulted in the beautiful scene. Summing up, I think memories make us and we make memories in a continuous circle. What do you think?
Ha! I have to share this with you… when we were at junior school, we used to get big fat punjabi samosas at the school canteen wrapped in semi-transparent tracing paper! Today I am working with a friend from those days and every time we meet she orders those same Punjabi samosas! And I go into nostalgic ecstasy 🙂
Next time, I shall shamelessly ask for the tracing paper too…
Ego in Ratatouille is spot on… As for the answer, I dont know… am hoping to find out!