My parents recently went back to my childhood home and brought back some keepsakes that held meaning for our family. As you know, I visited them last week for the festival of Diwali, and it was a treat to spend time with them after eight long months.
What made it even more special were all those souvenirs they brought back—it was like a trip down memory lane! Some of my favorite items they brought back were a tiny trophy I won in a debate competition, the “I’m sorry” card a classmate gave me when he’d screwed up, and a wrinkled copy of a Robert Ludlum spy thriller that I happily read over and over again instead of my high school textbooks.
Nostalgia is a powerful drug! It was wonderful to revisit all these memories with my parents.
So that’s what today’s poem is about.
Alright, poem starts in 3… 2… 1!
Back when I was small with tiny eyes and tiny ears. I'd wonder then that what could be the point of souvenirs? What's the point of photographs or buttons made of glass? Why hold on to some coins or pins, or a torn up railway pass? But now that I have larger ears and decades in my past. I've realized some memories need clues and cues to last. They need an indicator like a medal or a pin. Like magnets put up on your fridge, or tattoos on your skin. A photo will remind you of a day you had much fun. And when you look at trophies you will think of all you've won. Time will pass, and life goes on and memories will pile. And in that pile of memories are hidden many smiles. So when you have some time on hand, with nothing else to do. Go dig up an old souvenir and live that time anew.
That’s it! This was edition no. 83 of Hello Universe, thanks for checking it out!
Check out Some Fun Stuff below.
Some Fun Stuff:
This is where I share something cool to read, something cool to listen to, and something cool to watch! The underlined words are links that you can click to visit the recommended content.
1. Check out Paragraph AI: This app is like Grammarly on steroids. Not only does it correct any poorly written grammar, but with easy to use sliders like “Formal <-> Informal”, “Friendly <-> Assertive”, and “Optimistic <-> Pessimistic”, it allows you to nail down your tone of voice and then rewrites your sentences to sound exactly like you want them. In fact, I wrote this intro by myself, and then asked this app to rewrite it for me. The results speak for themselves, don’t they?
2. Listen to Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat by Charanjit Singh: My friend Nipun, (whose musical tastes I have shared earlier on Hello Universe) discovered the origins of the "acid house" genre. Turns out it was accidentally invented by an Indian musician in 1982, 5 years before the term "acid house" was even coined.
Here’s a link to this fascinating story - definitely worth a read!
And here it is on Spotify. A total bopper of an album, hard to believe it came out 40 years ago:
3. Watch “Solid jj” on Youtube: Someone who takes a simple concept and stretches it to its absolute limits is exactly my kind of entertainer. And the concept of this particular channel - what if superhero comics were absolutely unhinged? - is absolutely hilarious. I subscribed to the channel from the very first video I watched and have been laughing along ever since. MUST WATCH!
That’s it. See you next Tuesday!