dear Aachi,
past is always valuable..future is unknown ..sometimes i feel the present makes the past and the future wonderful or ugly..if ur happy everything looks so wonderful even the worst incidents have the coating of happiness ..
may be sometimes i feel everyone gets so worked up at reliving the past or dreaming about the future that we just let go of the present ..and there lies the problem...

Good Morning Aachi,

Great Post.

Of course Past has its own beauty - one that shows us the way to the eternal present and hence creating way for our future untold. And the other, that you've touched - to look back every now and then and smile, feel good about, let go of it cause you don't have to hold on to it, let it lay where it best belongs, so you can again turn back and be able to smile.

Once again, a Good post to a beautiful, washed out morning.

:)

Dear Aachi,

Beautiful post! I agree with Preethi on - "present makes the past and the future wonderful or ugly" - Speaking from my own experience, today I can look back into my past and only see blessings (even in the situations that I thought were from hell). And thats possible only when one has moved on completely. So I guess thats why the PRESENT is eulogized. If you are happy in the moment, the past and the future will look equally happy :-)

A very Good Morning to everyone! and what a beautiful morning it is here in Delhi after the nice rainy respite last evening :-)

Hi Buddy

Mmmmm thoughts. This morning I came in to work and switched on my World Space Radio which has a channel called Farishta(non-stop old hindi songs) it was playing "zamanesey kaho akeley nahin hum, hamarey sang, sang chalein ganga ki laherein". Used to be a favourite of a past which was very different from who/what I am today. Tried to recall the moments of uncomplicated bliss I felt at that age, tried to recall my home which I grew up in where a beautiful garden was my favourite place to sing and dance. And strangely the memories are all just a blur, a strange disconnection from any intense identification of a moment of either great joy or great pain. Actually the general feeling when I recall the past is now just a wonderous fast forward of living to the hilt.

Individually I cannot recall any moment (even the most painful experiences)apart. Its like the emotional memory has just been deleted and all seems a to exist only as wonderment. It is a strange, strange state. Especially since I was intensely melancholic for the longest time (not gloomy though) and loved the sad, wistful silence of my melancholia. And now I cannot even relate to/remember that favourite past time.

Reading your post just made me wistful somewhere for the highs and the lows which I once knew so well.

Aachi Pal

Love opening the blog to see your post. An interesting topic. I dont know but I spent so many years stuck in my past that I am happy to have let it go. Thats not to say that the past did not have joyous moments in it but I wonder if one is truly living in the moment does the past not lose its relevance? When one stops dancing to the shadows of the past then what value lies in visiting it? Unless of course it rises spontaneously as a reminder of something unhealed, some emotion revisited in the present. Just thinking out loud.

love

Dear Anusheh,

"When one stops dancing to the shadows of the past then what value lies in visiting it? Unless of course it rises spontaneously as a reminder of something unhealed, some emotion revisited in the present."

All our pasts are made up of 'good' and 'bad' moments ( I put them in quotes as they are just good and bad as per our perception while in reality it is all as it should be). What you are talking of, are the moments that one prefers not to remember and hence the question, "why visit it?". But I feel that it is upto you how you view those 'not-so-good' times in the past. As I said, if one can learn the lesson and grow from each of those experiences, then they begin to seem like blessings in disguise that you are actually thankful for :-). And yeah, these memories are mostly triggered by something in the present. But sometimes, they can also be visited intentionally, just to feel good :-)

Just my take ....

PS: love that song "There She Goes" :-)

Dear Aachi,

No way this is not a out of the blog topic! In fact the first couple of lines made me blush as I read them... Thank you for making us stop today and think about the happy moments in the past.

At times when I feel low I take out my albums of old photographs and relive the joys that I shared with my friends and loved ones and remember the dear ones that I left behind.

Dear Anusheh,

I have a habit of writing diary. On some days I decide to go back to the same date of few months back and read what I had written then. It gives me so much happiness to read how I have come a long way from back then. Or it tells me how I need to move along from now. For me revisiting a emotion in the past has reminded me how much I should be valuing the present.

Dear Chaitali and Shubhz

I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying. The past is only relevant when the present is lacking. Thats what I'm trying to say. For if our present were truly satisfing, fulfilling and joyous what value would the past hold? That is my question.And no Shubhz I'm not talking of just bad memories.

Hey Anusheh,

Sorry that we didnt get the drift of your comment right.

Well, my answer to your question would be, yes you are right, reminiscing does not do any 'value-addition' to the present (if thats what you mean), but it can act as a reminder every now and then of all the things that we should be thankful for or may be for no other reason except bring a smile on our faces, or bring tears of joy .... just cherishing those moments once again, not necessarily because one is unhappy in the present. But no harm in adding to the joy that already exists in the present, is there? :-)

Hello Achi

I was very happy to read a very nicely written post.

I have a personal reason. Last evening I was very sad, some girlfriends were hanging out together and they forgot to invite me (I was under the impression I was a close friend now). I shed a few tears, I felt alone and all other emotional trappings of a young teen feeling rejected, I also hated myself for being a petty swine.

Inspite of a beautiful morning (yeahhhhhh.. rained in Bombay too) I got up feeling blue. Well to get to the point, I opened your post and thought back to my recent past when these friends, had helped me through my difficult times. I don’t feel bad anymore and that is the end

Makes perfect sense Shubhz:)

Dear preethi,

I have a peculiar thought regarding this. I feel a happy past makes a happy present. I personally had pretty rough times...sad times...but whenever I peek back at them...I dont find any hatred or repulsion...I just look at them as things required to make me what I am today. It is then that I see those tough times also smile back at me...and make the present all the more beautiful.

Dear Surya,

Absolutely agree with you.:)

Dear Jasjit,

I agree. I think with time...somethings die in us and we can never relate to somethings as we used to....but if we find in us the same innocence and joy that we had long ago...even for a minute...the ecstasy is unmatched.

In a state of flux where we constantly change...reminders of our innocent self act as tonics to a parched soul.

Dear Aachi,

Loved reading it. I too enjoy reliving the past...the special moments spent with my parents
(excluding the times they would go on saying "go and study"),moments spent with an admirer,friend and now my children.I remember the time my daughter first learnt to laugh.She would burst out laughing the moment she saw my face .
I wondered,and still do,what had made her laugh so much on seeing me :-).Anyway,I enjoy remembering those moments whenever I am feeling low.

By the way,just like Sageeta,I too looked out for my name in the list of your friends.Thank you.

Dear Anusheh,

I understand what you mean. It is defnite that a happy present makes us indifferent to the past...but in a life of constant change there comes a time when the present turns ugly...it is then when we take a peek back...we are bombarded by the wonderful innocence we were a part of.

it is a little difficult for me to express what I mean....hmmm....well for example like Shubhosree said...about the reminders...well today morning on the drive to the hospital I saw the post rain clouds hanging in the crystal blue sky with lush green trees in the foreground...and I immediately thought of the lush green forests of the western ghats...and got lost in my thoughts.

I smiled for the amount of beauty I hold in me, thanks to an experience in the past :)

Dear Chaitali,

thank you.:)

lots of love to all of you. :)

Dear Madhavi,

a lovely morning and day to you...:)

Dear Sunrise,

:)

Hi Aachi

Beautiful she is! Just the other dsy in Almora my cousins and I were arguing about a childhood incident. Crazy as it was all three of us had a different take on the same thng. And while it was a disturbing event one cousin insusted on seeing it as this really deep & sensitizing experience. As i read your post I thought 'aha' to him the memory was 'beautiful'.

I wonder though if memory usually adds a few frills of its own to make the past more bearable. The other thing I see so often is that people tend to remember the painful times eternally and the joyous times not quite that often

Jasjit

Tell me if the memory becomes as amorphous as you say, how does one retain context?

Everyone have great day! The weather here is just perfect!

Just to set the record staright...."I felt alone and all other emotional trappings of a young teen feeling rejected, I also hated myself for being a petty swine".

This sentence in my comment makes it sound like i am a teenager:)..I wish......far from it though.

Hi Madhavi

I had the exact same thought when I read that line of yours. But hey who says we're not carrying our young uns inside us:)

Hi everyone,

Dear Anusheh,

I'll probably be repeating what Shobhosree has already said. Now when I go back and read my diary and come across some sad instance, I actually laugh at my behaviour then. But I laugh because I am happy in the present and the past incidents seem so so so well funny :)

Love and have a great day today!

“We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.”

Jeremy Irons

Thats a lovely quote Prasun