Nostalgia

What is so romantic about Paris? The only other city I would really like to see in the rains…I have a love-hate relationship with the rains and with my city, Calcutta…although I have seen my fair share of rain in Bombay, it was somehow baffling and exhilarating …torrential and yes definitely baffling…but in Calcutta (and I have heard also in Bombay) when it rains (and oh it pours!) the roads are flooded, traffic stops and in a way the city stops…but nothing beats the cool breeze of an early April or late June shower and the smell of wet earth (which is related to some bacteria)…but I am going off topic, what is it about Paris or Cairo or Calcutta in the rains (even without the rains)…I was watching this movie called “Midnight in Paris” and the film starts with a few sweeping shots of the city and I felt so thrilled, remembering some of the streets I had walked in and wishing (imagining) walking in some of the others, little bistros, splashing puddles with flashing street lights and of course cobbled roads! I mean what’s not to love? And there was something else they spoke of in the movie, the term is “nostalgia” related specifically to some old time…the protagonist in the movie wants to live in Paris in 1920s and in the rains…I found that absolutely thrilling! Then my enthusiasm was dimmed a bit when his not so nice “friends” pointed out that people who have such longing for the past they do so since they are unable to cope with the pain and the ugliness of the present…I couldn’t agree more…I mean why do we watch movies, read novels and why do we travel…we do so to escape sometimes from the pressing needs and demands of the present…The present is not such a “gift” as people would like to sell you to, things like nothing like the present and today is a gift that’s why it’s called a present…well hard luck returning the “gift”…what’s wrong with nostalgia…I often visit my memories and sometimes imagine the future…even marvelous trips….sipping wine and reading a book by a road side bistro in Paris…walking through a bustling bazar in Cairo and petting a cat…watching the sand grains slip through my fingers in the desert and looking at the pyramids in awe…I mean why not? Sometimes I don’t want to look at bills that need to be paid, dishes that need washing, and numerous everyday chores that need to be done…I am a romantic and I often live in memories, but isn’t that a crime we all are guilty of to a certain extent?

“Often I dream of far away streets and cats playing peek-a-boo,

Corners of a dusty bookshelf dappled with sunshine…

And a misty morning in June…

Sometimes I wish I could live in a far away cottage,

Just beside the creek, and could hear the water lapping,

Or just dancing in the moonshine by the pool!

And then I wake up to tomorrow and the days pass away,

I slip in and out of my day dreams, trying to live through the way!”