MEMORY IS A WEIRD AND WONDERFUL THING!

"You are what you are only because you have the memories you have."

A few days ago I was walking along the banks of the river Wey which flows through the middle of our estate, enjoying the different shades of green leaves that have reappeared in Spring on the trees and shrubs growing on either side of the river. Suddenly a medium sized tree attracted my attention; it seemed very familiar and festive. I looked a bit closely, nothing exceptional. Bright green leaves, slightly darker stems, no flowers: pretty much like any other tree around it. I just continued my walk, stopping on the way to look at some wild flower or a bird.

That green plant kept on coming to fore in my mind like a catching tune.  It was not a strange or unique tree. It looked so common, still there must be something more to this tree than meets the eye to make me feel this way.

Next day I saw a similar tree just about hundred steps from my front door on the back of my neighbour’s house. I felt the same feeling of happiness and familiarity. I looked closely; it was the leaves that

attracted me most, a typical leaf, very symmetrical shape, one long spine in the middle with veins running at regular interval exactly parallel to each other. I took some photos on my mobile and brought some leaves home.

I put one leaf on the kitchen table and took a close-up photo of the leaf. Suddenly the penny dropped, a smile spread on my lips. Seeing the leaves in our kitchen suddenly triggered the association that was eluding me. 

 Of course this leaf has the exact pattern that my mother used to

put on the homemade cookies. When I was a child, every kitchen in our part of India had a wooden block with this pattern. It was used to decorate the sweet dough cookies before frying them in clarified butter (ghee). Colloquially these cookies were called Thekua or Khajur.

These cookies were made on most of the festive occasions and also whenever my mother was in a good mood and wanted to reward us. When I was in the medical college, I lived in a hostel. In holidays I went home. On my return she will pack a good number of these cookies for me to take back.

These leaves were associated with  all kinds of strong memories, olfactory, visual and auditory.It invoked a strong feeling of love, joy and festivity.

Memory is a weird and wonderful thing! You are what you are only because you have the memories you have.