The old photo album is a treasure trove of memories. The other day I was going through an old family album featuring photos of my siblings & I in our childhood. There were the mandatory photos taken when we were three months old, just after we had learned to turn on our stomachs. All of us staring at the camera with a frightened look and with a black `kajol` dot on our cheeks to ward off the evil eye. For the same reason that parents were not allowed to take photos of kids until they were three months old.
The
next one showed all of us standing at different angles, probably when we were
one year old. Except for my sister, who was wearing a `jaddi`, all the male siblings were in our birthday
suits! I also discovered separate albums for each one of us tracing our growth
from childhood to our marriage. Marriage albums those days were with black
sheets of paper bound in black hard
cover featuring black & white photos
pasted in position with four corner stickers. If you wanted to remove a picture
from the album, it had to be torn off as it was not meant to be removed from
the album.
I
was thrilled to see a photo taken when I was four years old, clad in a pyjama
/kurtha with my long hair tied into a
bun with flowers tucked in. The photo
was taken a couple of days before my family`s visit to Tirupathi to have my
first `Mottai ( Mundan) , as was customary in our family. I also found thousands
of loose photos taken on various occasions packed in different envelops or as
inserts in transparent plastic albums.
Fast
forward to modern times. Though I could not find any of the albums featuring my
children`s photographic history ( as they were thoughtfully given away to them
by my late wife after their marriages) I
did find a few photos taken during the time when my eldest daughter presented
us with our first grandson. There were pictures taken showing my daughter lying on
her back in a maternity hospital with a big protruding tummy; the new born baby in the hands of my
son-in law and a beaming picture of my
daughter with a deflated stomach with her
child next to her. This was twenty years ago. These days it has become
customary for young parents to record on
their mobile cameras the minute to minute action before & after delivery of
a baby and instantly share the same on their `Whats App` groups. I shudder to
think of the day when some over enthusiastic young father (who is allowed inside the delivery room if it is a
normal delivery) decides to share the photo of the child coming out of the
womb.
Even
the marriage albums with the accompanying video CDs have become lavish affairs.
I am told that some families with deep pockets hire a photographer to accompany
the newly married couple on their honeymoon so that the memories of the young
couple cavorting in different places and situations can be captured for
posterity. Seems fine so long as it does
not include their bedroom!
As an old timer I feel that the sheer joy of browsing through old albums and going
down memory lane can never be replaced by the thousands of instant photographs
taken on mobiles which are forgotten after they are shared on` Whats App`
groups`!
(This
article has appeared in Adyar Times issue dated 23-29th July,2017
under my column `Rajan`s Random Reflections`. If you like it please share it
with your friends)
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