Walking down the memory lane: Refreshing memories of past

Walking down the memory lane is like taking a break in the journey of life and looking back at the milestones left behind. There are times or occasions when a particular episode just makes you walk down the memory lane. You meet your old friends in a school reunion and suddenly memories from the past get refreshed. Every school teacher and every class fellow just becomes alive in your memory.

In our life we often come across advisors who will tell you not to get attached to the past and move ahead in life. Everybody has a past and somehow we tend to carry the sweetest memories from the past lifelong. I will suggest to hang on to the past if those memories make you smile.

There are so many occasions in our life that bring back the sweet memories of the past. I am just picking the ones which often get refresh during our meeting with friends or cousins.

Walking through the memory lane of School and College days

The time we were growing up and going to school were the days that we can call the ultimate freedom days. During my schooling days the tuition culture was missing. Learning came from what the teachers taught you in school and some help which you got from parents. For parents, if you were going to school regularly it meant you were studying hard. Getting a first division was ok. Parents were not that demanding about their kid getting ranked in the top 3.

Going to school was fun as it was a meeting place for friends. Physical Training or PT classes were the most look-forward classes. It was a class which came with no botheration of class test and you were free to play football or cricket  The school bell announcing the lunch break was the sweetest sound that still rings in my ear. The problem was that by the time lunch break started most of the tiffins would be empty. Friends at back bench would finish it off by the 1^st period.

There were times when a friend would check if you have completed the Mathematics homework and would borrow your copy as he forgot to do it. He would miss the morning assembly and copy the sums from the borrowed notebook. By the time the class would start his copy was on the teacher’s table with the rest.

Teachers who were favourites

Some teachers were your favourites and you would listen to them carefully. And then some teachers would make you go to sleep. Their cacophonous voice would make even an interesting topic boring. The only lively thing which happened in the class was when a paper plane will come flying from the backbenches and land on the teacher’s table. Hell would break loose and the teacher would straight away head for the Principals room. Soon the whole class was standing in the classroom until the period got over. And the culprit always got scot-free.

Walking down the memory lane of those beautiful summer vacations

Vacations of our time were limited to going to our grandparents house by a chook-chook train (train with a steam engine). There was no concept of international vacations. Also, the summer vacations were of complete two months starting in May. Schools would reopen in 1^st week of July. So much was the tradition of visiting grandparents during summer breaks that the whole neighbourhood would get deserted with hardly any children playing in the park.

It’s vacation times so no studies

Imagine two months away from school and homework. Fun would start from the time you would land up at your grandparent’s house. Sleeping together with cousins on a cot (khatiya) and counting the stars was a favourite past time. The day was reserved for visiting the farmhouse and taking a bath under the tube-well. Summers were a good time to pluck mangoes from the tree. There were several ways you could lay your hands on the king of fruits; Aiming at the mango with a stone or hitting the mango with a long wooden stick. And if you were still unlucky then you could climb the tree though this option at times had casualties.

Afternoon times were meant for Ludo, Saap-sidhi or Monopoly. At times you would get a chance to participate in a card session meant for the senior cousins.  The skills learned during those card sessions are the ones that I still use during the Diwali card session.

This was the period when you created that bond with your cousins that still carries on in life. Family weddings are the perfect occasions which gives you a chance to meet all those cousins and relive the past memories. The day a wedding is finalized a message goes to all the cousins to make their presence a must to relive that golden era. And when all of them meet especially over drinks a couple of days before the function, walking down the memory lane becomes so much fun.

Special days in our life which are difficult to erase from the memory

These were some special occasion days like birthdays or the day you got a good position in the class. In our times even getting a rank in the top 10 in the class was an achievement. The reward was a couple of off-days from studies and 24/7 access to TV. You also got the liberty to go and watch an Amitabh Bachchan movie along with your friend without any rok-tok from parents.

Birthdays were simple celebrations at home. You would invite your close neighbourhood and class friends. Cutting a cake was important but more important was having the suji ka halwa made by mom along with her blessings and a red tilak on your forehead.

The first crush

Walking down the memory lane brings a smile on your face the day you narrate to kids on how you had proposed to the first girlfriend in your life. Kids are surprised to know that it took you six months to have the first dialogue with your girlfriend. On explaining that even an eye contact used to make our day they look amused. They laugh to glory on hearing that you proposed to her through an Archies greeting card along with a bunch of roses. Meanwhile, your spouse adds some fuel to fire by updating the kids that dad’s girlfriend is now a mother of three and weighs 80 kilos.

Memories from this memory bank are huge and generally trigger during any session with friends, family or cousins. The past which comes alive while walking through the memory lane is sweet and helps in strengthening the love bond even further.

Read more such similar stories on my blog. Click on the link bellow:

The Great Expectations: falling in love with childhood once again

Life Skills: The art of making your children street smart

The Cuckoo’s Nest: Getting the young ones ready to fly in the sky