Category: Nostalgia

  • Journey to Japan

    Journey to Japan

    I went to Japan with my sister nearly an year ago. It was a 15 day trip and we left in the first week of June. The 15 days spanned the tropical island paradise of Okinawa, quaint towns and villages in the Hida mountains, the mega-city thrills of Tokyo and a bunch of other places like Hiroshima and Kyoto on the way. I was also seeing my sister after a long time who flew to Tokyo from Pittsburgh. And this was the first time that the two of us were traveling together without any parental supervision. So, I was really excited!
    I was busy with preparation for a Math exam scheduled for the end of May. So, the majority of planning was down by my mother and sister. My mother is the planner in chief for all travel itineraries in our family. Despite being a busy professor at a big public hospital, with a lot of responsibilities at work and home, her travel plans can put the most hardened backpackers to shame in terms of frugality, ambition and hatred of cliched tourist traps. The first iteration of our itinerary included landing in Tokyo, a hike to Fuji, flying to Okinawa, flying back to Kyoto, visiting Hiroshima and Takayama in the Hida mountains (Japanese Alps), taking a Shinkansen to Hokaido and then back to Tokyo. Its a testament to the depth of her research and conviction about what constitutes a good itinerary, or perhaps our travel immaturity, that my sister and I decided to go ahead with the entire thing less Hokaido. I’m glad that we did because as the itinerary was turned out perfect.
    My Japan itinerary
    Photographs by reflect_color
    (trip details pending)

  • Bonding Over Radio

    Bonding Over Radio

    Yesterday’s weather was uncharacteristically pleasant for the month of May in Delhi. I was lying in my room after dinner and listening to Ruskin Bond narrate his “The Eyes Have it” on the radio. I had switched off the lights in my room. I had my window open because it had been a rainy day and there was a nice cool breeze. The reception was patchy and I the could hear lots of static. It had taken some effort to find a corner of the room where the static was low. Bond’s warm voice flowing from the radio with his impeccable English made the experience timeless.
    Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/rain-water-window-dark-night-room-2589417/
    This picture captures how I saw the world outside my window, lying on my bed. Bond’s narration lasted for just 15 min but
    those 15 min seemed borrowed from another era. I was reminded of those
    small radio clips of important historical announcements that you get in
    movies and documentaries. The opening lines of Nehru’s tryst with
    destiny speech, IG announcing the imposition of emergency and a news
    announcer declaring that India was now in a state of war with Pakistan
    after airfields in Ambala had been bombed by the PAF. I was filled with a
    strange feeling which I find hard to describe. I guess it was the just
    the similarity in the medium for those broadcasts- the radio. Or perhaps
    just a yearning for being present at those pivotal occasions. Whatever
    the cause may have been, at that moment, I was filled with what I can
    best describe in a word as nostalgia. A quick google search shows that there is a word for that- anemoia. I guess, nostalgia is a feeling of familiarity which doesn’t always connect to actual memories. Politicians seem to exploit it all the time. Isn’t it what makes Trump’s supporters fired up about “Making America Great Again”? Or, Hindu Nationalists misty eyed about India as a “Sone ki Chidiya”. The relationship between nostalgia and populism deserves a separate post. I will try to do it, but no promises.

    For now, I wonder which
    announcements (videos and not audio most likely) will go down in documentaries
    for the COVID19 pandemic? I think the lockdown announcements will
    surely make it and also Trump’s many faux pas. But, what about the
    millions who are starving or migrants whose trains home were cancelled?
    None of that will make it into the big budget movies/documentaries, of
    course. Perhaps, in the age of social media and camera phones
    everywhere, their voices might get recorded. And, they may find a
    place somewhere in the audio/visual historiography. I really hope they
    do.