Glimpses

One does not always need high-tech equipment to travel back in time.

Human mind has always been one of those many areas that have come under the scrutiny of our unending fascination. Mere tissues and aggregations of cells with the power to rouse the masses. It is an incredible power that continues to captivate us each day in bounds in leaps; a mellow marvel of this increasingly mechanical maze.

Just the other day, I witnessed one such unsung miracle. With some spare time on my hands, I decided to go out for a walk. An attempt I can unabashedly claim to be a desperate act to break loose from the monotonous rhythm of a complex routine. As I sat on the park bench, after the walk which my memory recalls as being tiring, I tried to take in with my senses whatever the scene had to offer. Surprisingly enough, my exhausted body looked at the environment in a different way. With a transformed perspective, I caught glimpses of a world that I had never ventured into.

Just a glance at an everyday object like a wafer wrapper, triggered the intricate process of association of several forgotten, nonetheless beautiful memories.

I remembered pleading and persuading my parents to buy that favourite flavour of wafers at each visit to the grocery store. Purchasing chips, chocolates and other such junk with the intent to collect the ‘free gifts’ that the ongoing scheme had so sincerely promised. A wily strategy to lure our innocent minds. It was only followed by the bragging about those latest additions to collections and the subsequent trading of the ‘treasures’ in an effort to amass the greatest and most diverse stash ever owned on the face of this earth. Fantasies of a five year old.

Faint smells wafting from houses as delicious meals were being prepared, made me reminisce those absolutely delightful lunches we shared each time the family sat together. Days of fun and frolic that had only become a distant memory as we had managed to proceed further in our lives.

I returned from this walk down the memory lane only to see the sky welcoming the stars. The same stars under which the neighbourhood kids would play a game of make belief as watchful parents sat close by. Those adventurous nights when the vicinity faced much drawn out power outages.

The beeping phone brought me back to the moment, signalling the end of this blissful glimpse into the past. A few cherish able moments, brought into existence by the stimulation of senses. Moments that would have otherwise flown by 

unattended, unacknowledged, unlived.