Last
Sunday, I went to Orchard Road.
No no, this
is not going to be about the trendy clothes I bought or the atas food I had. This wouldn’t be
named “memories” otherwise.
It often
becomes difficult to appreciate things of our past when everything is new, when
everything is changing and when everything is becoming increasingly modern. We
are so used to having the world at a swipe of a screen, that we forget how
primitive and simple things used to be. We forget how pagers, colourless
Nokias, Tamagotchis and so on –
fragments of our past, used to exist but are now gone, lost.
So anyway,
last Sunday, even as I walked the bright glittery streets overcrowded with
branded goods stores, I couldn’t help but take notice of this one little thing
that stood out to me – the Marigold ice-cream push cart, the most basic form of
an ice-cream store, the epitome of childhood happiness and memories. At least
it used to be.
As a child
I remember getting overly excited at the distant ringing of the ice-cream bell
and the sight of an orange umbrella attached to a puny motorcycle out my
window. It is things like that make my childhood memories worthy of sharing and
worthy of remembering. Thus came the fear of the ice-cream push cart and the
memories along with it disappearing into history.
Our
precious memories, oh our poor sad memories.
But as we
helplessly watch the symbols of our memories slowly deplete and diminish as
time passes, maybe we could make a difference by putting effort into making great
memories and treasuring them. And I think it is apt for to say that as a J1, I
(and you too) can start doing just that, since we’re in a new school, with
these new friends and in this new time. Let us make some great memories that at
least won’t disappear even as the objects around them slowly do.
And here is
a picture of a place that holds good memories for me (but sadly, gone). What’s yours?
