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Nostalgia Unlimited

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by satchitananda, Aug 23, 2019.

  1. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Those were the days my friend,
    We thought they would never end

    Those lines came to mind - we had sung a parody of that song at the school farewell when we stepped out of the world. Today I can say that again, looking back at the wild journeys inside the head of that kid who lived about 4.5 decades ago.

    The dreams were endless. So were the disappointments.

    Just this evening hearing the name of Homi Bhabha being mentioned, I remembered a little girl who was told by her mother who that great man was. I remember the deep disappointment she felt, that we had lost such a great scientist. It felt almost like a personal loss. When do we lose that sensitivity?

    Watching a travel video in some way out place in Russia brought back other memories of an 11 year old learning about the USSR in her Geography class. Fancy names such as Leningrad and Vladivostok being thrown around. The dreams at the dining table ..... chatting with the older sib who took 2 hours to eat!!! Of travelling to the USSR. Going by train from one end of the country to the other. Dreams of going to Switzerland and driving through the Alps in a roofless car with the wind flowing through her hair. The images were vivid ..... mountains, wind, snow-capped peaks. Sigh, that did come to pass though there was no roofless car. Her dreams of England after reading stories of Sleeping Beauty (the book had scalloped edges and a picture of SB with beautiful roses growing all around) certainly were realized. Yes, with roses, flowers and the like.



    Here is another version of the same:



    (What a shame I was not even vaguely aware of any of these birds when I was there!)

    (Can't help smiling ear to ear whenever I hear this song. I heard it at a Maypole dance I saw on summer outside Westminster Abbey when I was just strolling along one weekend.)

    Watching Sound of Music and sealing a deal with the sib that we would go together round the world singing. :roflmao: And then the feeling of being letdown when she broke that promise only to go and get married! Never mind. She made up for that with a delightful nephew and a niece!!!

    The dreams of visiting unfortunately fell apart with the breaking up of the USSR. The dream was shattered. So was the dream of visiting Yugoslavia. Why? Don't ask. Every name heard had to be visited.

    Just yesterday I was thinking I had run out of stuff to write about. Today this topic presented itself. Oh well! Nostalgic moments come to visit making one smile about a time filled with vivid imagination and dreams. Those are the things that keep us going in this mundane (at best) and nightmarish (at worst) world of realities.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2019
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  2. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Madam,Really a lovely snippet of memories1When we were in standard 8, we had lessons in Geography about all European countries,the natural sceneries etc and the weird spelling of Russian words.
    Imagination reigned supreme. We never even dreamt that it will be a reality one day. In 2007,at the age of 65, my son gifted us a ticket for 22 days' trip to European countries!
    What a thrill it was! Mountains,winds and snow capped mountains -a reality for a couple after 45 years of marriage!For 5 to 6 years we were very much nostalgic when even a news reader talked something about Italy,France and switzerland-oh,that enchantin Leuver Museum,that lovely Tulip gardens with all the splendour ,journey by ship to London! What a great experience!

    On nearing 80, as memory fades, I feel that nostalgia also is getting reduced in increased propotions.Now thoughts are more spiritual. Everything, including nostalgia seems to have limitations.
    We should have some unfulfilled goals and objectives to think and enjoy and that is more pleasant than these visits.
    I am reminded of those beautiful lines in the poem'Ode on Grecian Urn'by John Keats.

    Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
    Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
    Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
    Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

    Everything in life has its end, so has music, it is transient in nature. In our daily lives, we listen to songs or music when we want to or for just a moment. We feel a momentary pleasure and bliss.
    But the music which the “Grecian Urn” presents through the musician in the poem is even sweeter than the heard melodies of the real or ordinary world. As the musician playing the flute or music is captured in the “Grecian Urn”, it is completely frozen in time and no one can stop the mellifluous music, the music will be continually played in the eternity.

    John Keats allows the readers to sense the things by themselves with their ability in order to have a complete understanding and enriching experience,
    The above lines can also be considered paradoxical or self-contradictory as the “unheard” melodies can never be heard in physical senses or it never exists in the real world, as it can never be heard, it is still sweeter only if we perceive it through our imaginary senses which is far more superior than our physical senses.

    Those imaginary songs, imaginary visits,imaginary poems-How lovely they are than the real nostalgia of events that occurred in our lives!
    A strange thought! Isn't it?

    jayasala42
     
  3. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Even Leningrad is no longer Leningrad. It is back to the days of the Czar as St Petersburg. I too have had the dreams of travelling through Swiss Alps but it never materialized though I considerably compensated for it by travelling through the Apennines of Italy. Ah sound of Music.Visit to Salzburg was another unfulfilled dream . not for Maria von Trapp but for Mozart.
     
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  4. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Very true JS Ma'am. Very often what we imagine when we read something or when we dream of something can be a lot more beautiful than the reality, so much so that one could feel let down when one actually faces the reality! Our imagination can never let us down.
     
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  5. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    I don't mind so much about Leningrad, but it would be sad if the name of Vladivostok were changed. What other name could replace the sound of that particular name?

    I had the good fortune of visiting Salzburg and of visiting Mozart's home. Vienna is a dream yet to be fulfilled.
     

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