The Nostalgic Post

I wrote about being nostalgic in this morning’s post and this is the follow-on one.

It doesn’t take a Freud to know that ever since my movement have become restricted to all things essentials, I’ve been dreaming (day and night-kinds) about open roads, travelling…the whole shebang. We had to cancel our annual summer break road trip and that bites too because it’s a beautiful bonding experience for the whole family even if Red acts like we’re going to end up in a fiery ball on the highway because of my driving!

A few days ago I dreamt of the lovely mosaic tiles of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club that I was fortunate enough to go and stay in. The room I was in had a high ceiling, loads of ventilation and so much light! It was a delight! I could see the Gateway of India from my window and the iconic Taj hotel was literally just around the corner. I was with good friends and it was perfect!

Since everything’s been on a nostalgia-overdrive, even songs have been evoking a lot of memories from before. This song (couldn’t find just the audio in a free form) in particular opened floodgates of visual memories from a trip to Chandigarh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh when TO was a much smaller tot.

I think what I remember most from the trip was Red’s wide-eyed experience of hardcore North Indian landscapes, people, food and the overall lifestyle. He absolutely loved Pubjab! The open roads, blue skies, massive fields of wheat and corn. We drove through towns and villages which were so clean and everything seemed so big and verdant!

TO of course had his own adventures which I’ll never live down and are actually funny anecdotes to relate now, but back then getting laughed at by strangers on the Mall Road in Shimla while climbing up with a dino attached to my back or getting scolded by an Akali sadhu (holy man) a.k.a Pirate Tata (Telugu word for grandfather) at the Golden Temple weren’t the highlights of my day.