Ever wondered how your brain chooses what to remember and what to discard? How seemingly irrelevant encounters with irrelevant people, who pass your way just once in your life time, are etched in mind forever, while entire relationships are easily discarded and dispensed with?
I have many of these seemingly irrelevant memories, permanently etched - some in black and white, some with audio, some flashes of conversations...
The number 4777, reminding me of this person who ended up being a good friend later - her bike was numbered 4777. More than a decade later, 4777 never fails to remind me of her! A conversation with my uncle, when I asked him to give me four words in English ending with "dous" (tremendous, hazardous, stupendous and horrendous) - and when he couldn't, teasing him about him being an English professor but not being able to answer my question! A 4-day science camp when I was in the 9th standard. Getting my finger hurt in a chest of drawers - and telling myself - I am now going to have a sister - yes, I was less than 3 years old then, but I can still feel the pain in my finger when I think of it - I know the exact spot I was standing, and the exact position I was looking from. The day I topped the board exam, when I met my neighbour in the morning, and he wished me, telling me I had topped - he was just a clerk, but he knew before most others did - and I did not believe him! Rushing back home from the beach, my parents, me and my sister, the four of us on our Bajaj scooter. My first accident when I tried my brakes a little too hard to see if the scooter would skid - and yes, it did!
I have been writing a diary since the early eighties - did not finish some of the earlier ones, but have every single day of my life recorded from 1st Jan 1987. Reading the diary is an awesome experience - it's like one sentence somewhere can just open a torrent of memories in such amazing vivid detail! Wouldn't it be awesome if we could somehow record and "render" our memories - wouldn't that be close to immortality?
4 comments:
Great that you have managed to maintain a diary for such a long time. I always wanted to, but could never go past a week or so! :)
Record and render the memories - would you really want to do it? I doubt - memories are so personal, and they ought to remain that way.
Well, you know... some memories are best shared!
Imagine a college alumni get together where you plug in your memories and share them with your team mates - relive those moments all over again... you and your partner cuddling down on a rainy day, remembering your college romance... sitting down with you team and taking good notes on what your customer said in that onsite visit - no need for all those daily status reports :)
And of course, you can always have some finger-printing based access control!
I wish I could somehow get hold of that diary and find out about ur memories between 1989 & 1990.....
Kaash aisa hota to kitna achha hota !!!!
Love the first para....how true!
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