Nostalgia Trips

An appreciative audience for Sheela Mirani's pictures

Sheela Mirani, in a rare expression of candor, today shared some personal photographs in her mobile phone with us. She also spoke of her family for the first time – her husband, daughter, son-in-law, son and daughter-in-law, her grandchild as well. From a lady who largely keeps to herself, this came as a pleasant surprise – more so, because those were mostly pictures of her younger days, of happier times and unguarded moments, exuding warmth and family bonding.

Sheela Mirani

We shall never know what prompted Sheela to let us into her past this morning; just as there can be no telling when and why some of us turn nostalgic and babble about the ‘good old days’ gone by.

Hari Singh Shekhawat in uniform

Some do it all the time – be it about their childhood, cost of living, career and salary levels, public morals or even the quality of food they ate.
Angad Singh had adjustment issues upon shifting to Mumbai and used to often reflect on the way life treated him in Mohali. Nowadays he doesn’t. But Srichand Arora hasn’t yet got out of his Indore hangover. Santosh Tyagi still loves her Delhi while Bhaswati Bose can wax eloquent on her Assam, Fehmida Khan on her Nagpur and Nahid Khan on the Lucknow she knew.
Mumtaz Jahan can be physically here and mentally in Kashmir – the place she says, she “really belongs” to. Ved Prakash Grover would get nostalgic about his glory days as a top-ranking badminton champ. And Tara Chand Seth can spend hours narrating the horrors of Partition and how, as a 19-year-old, he had to leave his hearth and home in present-day Pakistan.
But there’s none to beat Hari Singh Shekhawat in his trips down memory lane. He needs no provocation to recount the places he had sailed to when he was in the Navy, or justify why he needs his daily tipple since the time he was in the Navy, how good he was in accounting when he was in the Navy, why he gave up drinking tea when he was in the Navy… Navy is part of his DNA.
Against this perspective, it is perfectly understandable why Sheela Mirani gave us a sneak peek into her past. It was another way of reaching out and drawing us closer into her life. As everyone noted, those were lovely keepsake pictures -- just that they deserve a better place than a mobile phone.
Kiran Prakash:
Most of us love our past. We enjoy wandering in those memory lanes. Real life however, is enjoying the present moment. Shekhawat-ji is one such person. Not only does he revel in the past, he makes us also enjoy the present moment - at least for those 45 minutes in the Garden. Though totally oblivious to this, he is doing a great service to all of us. Thank you Shekhawat-ji.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Time is divided into past, present and future. It is in the present we live, which is important and most relevant. We are thankful to all the members who make the morning session so lively that we never realise how time has passed us so quickly. We hope this tribe continues to grow.