Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Flashback

You know, how certain smells, sounds or even words can elicit a response from a long forgotten memory that you didn’t know you even had?

That’s what happened today as I was listening to this song, 'Wish You Were Here', Floyd. Its one of my all time favorite songs and I hear it so very often, always amazed and in love with the feeling that just takes over...

***

It was a hot afternoon, and we were at the local pub, nursing our beers. Just another of those times when the then centre-of-my-universe and I were ‘hanging out’, too cool to call it a date/relationship of course! I remember now that this song was playing. Nothing even mildly eventful happened that day; it truly is one of those random memories that you can recall years later, as lucidly as if it were yesterday, with no seeming significance.

***

In the dark, mellow lighting of the pub, perhaps due to the beers and through the haze of smoke, it all made perfect sense. The days were good and free. And for a while, that’s what the song stood for.

***

Heartbreak was always intense. I remember sitting in the Shatabdi, going from Bangalore to Chennai. Just waiting to be back home, in the comfort of my old room that I knew my mom would have ready for me. The rushing landscapes couldn’t compete with speeding thoughts!

Only in its teenage drama, could relief be found. Being dramatic can often be surprisingly cathartic.

***

Now of course am in a great place. But just this random afternoon and an out of place tune brought back some memories!

Suddenly, I see so many toxic relationships all around and I wonder if there ever will be a passion like there was when we were so young? When it was all or nothing, when we weren’t yet jaded? When realism, feminism didn’t convert the now cynics. When we were still innocent and looked at every relationship with wide-eyed wonder? With the enthusiastic promise of forever rainbows. When heartbreak meant getting together with your best friend at a sleep over and talking all into the night till you knew it wasn’t all bad. Till you knew you were better than that!

***

Thank god, at least some things haven’t changed!

13 comments:

phatichar said...

Beautiful... :-)

Roy said...

lovely!

Apy said...

*You know, how certain smells, sounds or even words can elicit a response from a long forgotten memory that you didn’t know you even had?*

I kno exactly what u mean.. i go through it every now and then... suddenly am able to feel the same stuff i felt then...

Itsnopicknick said...

This happens to me a lot! Sometimes I think that sounds and smells that are the only things that bring these memories back from the recesses...

I often wonder if I'll ever feel that electric crazy feeling like the first boy I kissed, not the first time cause that was just yuk, but the 2nd and 3rd!

So you from Chennai? I'm embarassed to say that ever since I saw it on Heroes, I've wanted to go there, it looks too beautiful for words!

P said...

@ Phatichar, Rossoneri
:) Thanks!!

@ Apy
Exactly...

@ Spoon
First times are always so damn nightmarish..

Nadim said...

'I wonder if there ever will be a passion like there was when we were so young?' Though i am not directly qualified to comment on this, I 'know' and i have seen there can be the same or even more passion!
but i guess the probability of that happening reduces by each passing day.

bhumika said...

"Memory, like a snake slithers away at the moment you least expect it." - R.K. Narayan

loved it :)

Unknown said...

I wonder if there ever will be a passion like there was.....it was all or nothing, when we weren’t yet jaded?

i have so often wondered the same. I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing, that there won't.

byker7 said...

:) 'Wish You were Here' is the only Floyd song i like.

i'm told, by reliable sources, that such blasphemy has ensured the eternal damnation of my soul.

it seems i'll suffer an eternity in a stuck elevator with speakers that play only boy bands.
on repeat.
the muzak version.

Born a Libran said...

Beautifully written... I love ur way of expressing things... In a way, I wish I had known you in the real world and not in the cyber world.. Keep the good stuff coming...

IP Cobstas said...

Ahh! Nostalgia- the priveledge to have pleasant meories...but thanks, i guess this made me go back and look into my own bag and see what i could find in them!

Just Jane said...

Beautifully expressed :)

All I'll say is - even nostalgia is not what it used to be! :P

P said...

@ Nadim
Be optimistic..

@Bhumika
Like the quote..

@TGFI
Its an 'undecided' thing...

@ Byker7
That canNOT be the only song you like.. no no no no!!
(You by any chance don't think Guns n Roses were defined by 'Sweet Child o Mine' do you?)

@ BAL
Aw, thankooo!

@ Ambooj
And did good stuff peek out at ya?

@ Janefield
Its the damn time..it taints everything..even nostalgia!