You would think that its not junk and that some day; you will definitely use them - that utopian day would never arrive. Maybe one day that 28" slim fit low hip jeans would fit again or you would wear to office that dangling multi layered neon green chandelier earrings you wore to college. Yeah? Usually, you attach emotional value to these which were once a part of your life - that barely there soccer ball, an old journal, a faded shirt.
You never know what all is in store? I uncluttered 6 months ago before shifting to my apartment; yet when I brought those carton boxes down the loft to search for something I misplaced; I fainted at what all I had stored. A crumpled yellow background paper napkin with Jack-o'-lantern on it; which I picked up from the very first Halloween celebration I attend few years ago in US; fees receipt of my engineering semesters, CET entrance fee receipt, my first flight journey tickets, letters from my school friend, slam books.....so on. Oh yeah, I definitely found the preserved love letters; greeting cards, photo of an old flame; it is obvious!
Gaze at each one fondly; memories rushing back; reminiscing those wonderful times; sifting through them; undecided what must be let go and what must be held back. You fail to notice; but junk have a life of their own; their life span is as long as ours. Every time you sit to clear them off; you sift and shuffle and create more junk - you get your dose of resurrecting your 'those' days - "Was I really that slim?" "Did he wear his shirt with cuffs folded?" - creating feelings of priceless joy.
My progress/marks report from Lower Kindergarten till 10th grade, photos through the years.......They cant be called junk and I will continue to preserve them while others are mercilessly thrown into trash.
This is the pyjama of my salwar suit. I remember the kurta had lace works. I was no more than 3.5 years. I cant even push my hands till my elbow now. Its a nice feeling - was I that tiny? I have diligently preserved this one for so many years now :)
Cute. :)
ReplyDeleteI too have many things piled up. And I don't think I'll ever dispose them off.
Good to know there is someone besides me who is as crazy as me to keep her 1 year old frock(in my case). :P
P.S. - Old (stored)clothes have a different kind of smell which I like. :D
:):) I am all smiling.. :):)
ReplyDeleteReally cute. I preserve small things too. :) Every 6 months, I trash stuff too. Have fun sorting out memories. :)
ReplyDeleteCharming post Insi.
ReplyDeleteBrought back several of such memories.
Thanks.
You said it Insignia. A sweet post! How true! Every year I take out plenty such things to dispose them off and arrange all my cabinets and closets afresh. But after pondering over each of them taking all the time I can spare, keep a few of them back again.Thus, the size of the pile remain the same.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, when I was in 5th standard, a sales man came to each classroom selling posters. I remember the teacher saying that the posters would cost Rs. 5 each, and I promptly got my Rs. 10 pocket money from mom the previous day. (By the way Rs. 5 seems very expensive for a poster for the 90's. Hmmm....) I dunno why a poster sales person would be allowed into the school, but I guess crazy stuff happens from time to time. I bought two posters. One was the actor Akshay Kumar's and another of Hanuman carrying the Sanjeevani mountain. Back then I was a huge fan of Akshay and Sunil Shetty combo in movies like Mohra etc, and Hanuman was my super hero ever since my memory can remember, 'cause my mom used to read Sundara Kaandam as bed time stories.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years back, I opened a dusty old cardboard box for some reason, and I found that Akshay Kumar's poster. After looking at his dress, his pose, etc., I immediately thought, how the hell was I ever a fan of this guy! Hopeless!
Another incident. Generally, it is a surprise if I don't cheat in an exam and I usually carry the text book with me. When I think about the number of times I have cheated, I am surprised myself. Imagine 6-10 subjects mutiplied by the number of mid term examinations plus quarterly, half yearly, model examinations = 6*(7) ~= 40. And, I guess you know this Bindu, but I did this for the most part of 10th, 11th and 12th standard and all four years of bachelor's degree. To make things worse I was the class leader in charge of the register book containing the marks of all the students of the class. I don't know how many 43's got changed to 93's. LOL! I would have been one amongst the guys fired after that "probation" period of my first job if I had not cheated. I remember I saved my half yearly report card of 12th standard because I scored zero (underlined in red). But the 12th standard half yearly examination was the most dearest experience. I scored zero for passing answer papers, no teacher had actually caught me copying from the text book. So from the teachers point of view I was still the nice intelligent high scoring student helping my beloved high school friend. The souvenier is that report card, which I hid secretly in a folder at home.
In 11th standard, the got the weird urge to explore the shapes of the body of a woman. Don't worry, I am talking about pencil sketching. :-p And I sketched women with different poses, emphasizing the obvious things that need to be emphasized. Funny that these sketches were more popular amongst girls than guys in my class. Anyway, somehow the set of these sketches and the report card ended up in the same file.
Over the time the sketch content was upgraded, and now I had sketches on men and women performing some kind of "activities" too. Now what's really funny is how I bumped into that old file with the report card once again. This was probably in my 2nd year of bachelor's degree (not sure). My dad was looking for some file and found this folder. Not only did he find my report card with the zero underlined in red, I can literally still see how hard he was trying to be angry after he saw the sketches. I guess he could not control his smile. To make things worse, I came in to the room exactly at the same moment he found the file. He asked me, "Do you know the meaning for these things?"
I cannot help but use the famous californian buffer phrase, "I was like... I was like ... :-| "
Thanks for such a wonderful post which reminded me of such "beautiful" (literally) memories in my life. :-) Obviously, I will never get tired of saying this, but your post is more than just a post. It touches people. In a way that truly matters.
There will always things that we'd like to save to remind us or be reminded of some passage of our life. It is hoarding to the extreme that spells trouble. Material things can be stored and retrieved to refresh memories of the past, so is music. But have you ever be tested with the sense of smell? Need not be those expensive perfumes but some cheap talcum powder does bring wonders too.
ReplyDeleteI admit I am equally guilty of this habit. My office is piling us with past reports which I thought I'll need to refer to someday. It looks like the day has yet to come. The paper recycler will one day find my place a treasure throve.
Down the memory lane!
ReplyDeleteA perky but, I think a characteristic little post that brings back similar memories.
I have seen people who pooh pooh little pleasant memories like these , calling it detachment from the past and so on , but quietly in their den have all these for safe keep.
There is nothing shameful in telling you have the teddy from your toddler days tucked up safely.
But also then the junks that are really so often keep tagging on us too, where ever we move.
this type of junk is collected by everybody:)
ReplyDeleteYou aren't the only one.Most of us collect such unusable /old stuff,God knows for what.
ReplyDeleteWe did find a way out for disposing this stuff off.
Periodically, we give it to either the blind school or the an orphanage nearby
You know what? You literally *RAPED* that pyjama! Look, how its is lying there - having resigned to its fate. I feel sorry for it. :( [What a perv! :P ]
ReplyDeleteHehe! Cute post, and a few of the revelations where *ahem* *ahem*-inducing. :) There's only one piece of 'documentary evidence' I'd preserved, and I'm no longer able to find it. Lagta hai ghar nigal gaya! :)
So true, it's just impossible to get rid of such stuff. These things are a part of your life, things that have seen you through good and bad times...they are more than just things. Especially photographs! What a cute post! :)
ReplyDeleteMom will disown me one day for storing this junk. I have so much - from books to clothes, various souvenirs. I have this habit of collecting boarding passes. I hate it when they issue one for me on the kiosk. It's a printout on white paper. I have souvenirs of people who are/were close to me - from some small piece written on a piece of paper, tissue, movie tickets - phew!
ReplyDeleteclothes - don't even talk about them. I may not wear so many of them, but I still have them as there are so many memories attached to them.
i have a deja vu; did I or you write something on similar lines earlier?
ReplyDeleteWhat is junk to another is our precious reminders of the past; we can throw them when we no longer feel like remembering it - be it an old dress or an old friend...
Hey Neha! That's so cool! I collect all sorts of boarding passes, receipts or any documents from travels too. Movie tickets, yay! Ha ha ha... I have hundreds of bus tickets from Chennai public transport neatly sorted according to the denominations, school uniforms from 11th and 12th standard. 24-28 inch bell bottoms was the in thing back then... :-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha .. I used to keep stuff too but try to avoid it these days due to the accumulating clutter. :)
ReplyDeleteVardhini
Event: Halloween Fiesta
You said it!! It the same with all of us. The other day, I needed some really old document and as I went through the whole file, old memories flooded me... many brought a smile and some made me thank God immediately!! :)
ReplyDeletelearning to throw away things that r not in use..wish me luck:)
ReplyDeleteEnigma,
ReplyDelete:-) Its the same with most of us.
Yeah, the smell is enough to take us back to those days
Ramya,
:-)
Juxta,
Did shorten your name :)
:-) Haha
Melange,
Thank you. :-) Glad
Ruprekha,
Thank you. Haha same same :)
Gautam,
I am glad you shared these incidents. Yeah I have been saving boarding passes as well. But just threw all of them the day before yesterday.
:-) Sketching? I didnt know you sketched. You didnt mention even once!!
Wan,
True; they remind of us some stage in life. As you said; the smell is enough to take us back to those good old days.
Anil,
Yeah, I wouldnt believe if people say they are detached from past. Saying so itself takes them to past isnt it :)
Renu,
Yeah
Chowla sir,
We want a part of past always with us. I do the same; some go to charity; while few remains
Ketan,
Lol Yeah I know; poor thing was the victim. :-P
Everyone has the *ahem* *ahem* past; dont you? :-P
:-)
Destiny's child,
:-) True; they are more than just things; but if you see they are junk. :)
Neha,
Neha, I collected 3 bags full of movie tickets; boarding passes and entry tickets to famous places like Niagara, Empire State; ARR's concert and all. I just threw them away 2 days ago. It was so piling up.
Balan,
Oh! Was it you or me? Dont remember!
Yeah :) We are ready to throw them when we dont want feel close to it anymore.
Gautam,
Neha will be happy to find one more like her
Vardhini,
Welcome to B Log :)
Haa same story :)
Shilpa,
:-) Good
Ramesh,
You will soon do once you dont have place to keep the useful ones or when your wife shouts at you :P
Beautiful.. Memories I got some of my collection too. And I dread climbing the loft I got so much. I plan to fix.. Start to look then memories come back and I keep them back.
ReplyDeletehehe...n all this 'garbage' (that's what my sister refers to them as) are my most precious possessions!!!
ReplyDeleteMy memories are alive.
ReplyDeleteand I cant sort them out. Don't need to anyway. :)
Bik,
ReplyDelete:-) hmm
Jaunty amina,
:-) Thats how it is
Makk,
Good as long as they just occupy your brain and not your loft or attic :)
A nice write up! So difficult to discard things with emotions attached to some!
ReplyDeleteRahul,
ReplyDeleteThank you. Welcome to B Log.
Yes, difficult it is :)
I try to declutter every 6 months. To a certain extent, I succeed. But, there are so many things, I've been hanging on to for years on end. The emotional attachments are too strong :).
ReplyDeletethey have occupied another place actually.
ReplyDeletemind is too busy and cluttered already place to keep those beautiful memories.unchopla
Oh wow ! That long ago and it looks pretty neat too !
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. you have the first item to start the family museum or something ! :)
This is simply awesome !
Of course, I do have those *ahem* *ahem* instances, and the "documentary evidence" was precisely of one such instance! :D
ReplyDeleteSo true. I have lots of these stuff too. My Papa has my first pair of shoes, my first grade report card, my first handwritten wedding anniversary card, and a few senseless poems I wrote back then. And the poems, they haunt me even today as he reads them out to my husband and my friends.
ReplyDeletei have very few things as memory dat occupy d loft n more of which occupy my heart....i cherish both!....:)
ReplyDeletenice post as usual....:)
Rachna,
ReplyDelete:-) Happens
Makk,
Oh hmm....hmmm
Kavi,
Yup! :) Haha I didnt think about it :)
Ketan,
Oh wow!! I thought you were too serious for those :)
Anita,
Thats so cute.
clouds,
Thank you. As long as your loft has enough space :)
i just love these posts of yours bindu... these little things in life that you talk about. you rock yaar!
ReplyDelete