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Nostalgia - A trick played by our mind



There is a famous dialogue in the movie Mudhalvan (Its Nayak in Hindi. I don’t know if Hindi version has the same dialogue).

‘How nice it would be if we got ‘forward’ and ‘rewind’ button in life also as like we have in a tape recorder ?’

I used to like that dialogue a lot and never failed to mention this to my pals when ever I get a chance. But later on, when I think deeper and in an unbiased way, I tend to realize that nostalgia is a trick played by our mind.

My school days were not all rainbows and sunshines. I still remember my disastrous days there along with all the happy time with my friends. I love the first time I went out to cinema bunking the class in my 9th standard. Though I can clearly identify it as harmonic infatuation, I loved the moment I saw a girl of my taste. I loved all the time that I spend with my friend discussing nothing but girls. I enjoy every bit of immature behaviour that I exhibited then. I enjoyed the thrill of exchanging papers during exam. I loved the sense of achievement that we got after firing crackers in front of our warden's room irritating him to the core. If only for these things, I would definitely want to go to my school days. But I also remember the amount of trauma I go through when ever I need to get my progress report signed by my parents when I got poor marks. The fear I develop for my teacher’s stick. The butterfly in my stomach when I was identified as one of the main culprits behind the strike that we did in school. Though these reasons sound to be silly now, the fear it created in my mind was no less than the biggest I face now. So I think life is absolutely same through out its tenure with happiness and disaster well mixed. But when we think about our past, we generally remember only the good moments, comfortably forgeting the nasty times that we had. This is the reason why we want to go to our past.

Unless we understand this, we would spend our life hating the present. I am sure the present is going to be a wonderful nostalgic moment in future. May I suggest everyone to understand this truth and love our present.

Image courtesy: http://www.marx-brothers.org/

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