Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Nostalgia....

On the topmost step of the step ladder, the world seems small and the attic seems dustier than ever before... Dreading the amount of spider webs i was bound to endure, i made my way up into the loft and threw down the cardboard cartons that held the dust of years past... Mom was looking for a particular cookbook that conveniently happened to be in the last carton...

I jumped down from the ladder and found this box labelled "Ben's Stuff". Interested, I dragged the box inside my room and opened it up... On top was the shirt that I wore on the last day of school.. The pocket ripped off, as was the custom in my school, and the signatures of some thirty-odd classmates, still fresh on the shirt...

Then I found a deflated basketball which read "Congrats! You did it!" I still remember my coach signing my basketball when we won the District Championship....

I dug further down and found a huge file containing all the speeches I ever made when i was in school... All the welcome addresses, the vote-of-thanks speeches, the year reports, oratory competion papers, printed reports... Each piece of paper reminding me of the pre-speech apprehension....

Further down, i found the diary i maintained in 6th grade... Describing how tough the new subjects were... I flipped through the pages and found a peacock feather that a classmate had given me... A sly smile came across my face as i sent her an SMS asking her if she remembered the feather.. ;)

Deeper down, i came across this badge that said, "Asst. House Captain, Reds". I still remember Sister Veena pronouncing my name all wrong as I went up to collect the badge in front of the whole school and becoming the youngest Asst. Captain in the history of the school...

Another dig later I resurfaced with a small cloth patch that read "Shorin-Ryu, Shorin-Kan". Shouts of "Kiyak!" filled my ears as I remembered how we practised Karate with great fervour... Imagining ourselves to be Superheroes of some sort.. always ready to save the damsel-in-distress....

Another delve resulted in a big sneeze and a bag full of certificates that ranged from normal stuff like "General Proficiency - Std.V" to some stupid award like "Best Dressed Student in School - L.K.G"

Every little thing in that box reminded me of some part of my life, however insignificant it might have been... And then I realized, I might have forgotten all of this had I not looked at this stuff... So i decided to keep the box under my bed =) The other boxes, however, have to go back on the loft.. ;)

Memories might fade, Years may pass into oblivion, Records may become obsolete. But, this post is a small tribute to all the people who made my life worth living. I salute you all.

9 comments:

Francis Thomas said...

i like. :D

i keep no keepsakes. yours sound interesting.

what did the girl say?

Unknown said...

Aww..

I'm too young to feel all nopstalgic, go figure.

Unknown said...

nostalgic*

CRD said...

now that was a nice post. funny i never htought of writing something on a topic like that. especially since im someone who likes keeping even insignificant things(insignificant for others that is) for memories' sake. i keep raakhis, gift wrappers, frndship bands, etc etc

nice post. u write well.

chris
www.crissdude.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Oh..I know that feeling!you write really well kid.:) - Meera

My Foot? said...

er... u didn't tell us if the girl remembered..

really sweet post :)

Soul Less Curry said...

Very delightful!
Strange you had things from your LKG also stored.. I can imagine the feeling, I keep all the cards given to me in a folder n look at them once in a while.. it's a lovely feeling. But, I didn't store other such things for memories sake.. and am repenting it now.. esp after reading it.

Good work!

freesherry said...

this was really sweet.. memories.. thats what we are made of..
really liked your blog
have blogrolled you

SS said...

Memories .. stored and retrieved ;) :)

great post :-)