That Nostalgic Farewell Card from Friends

Author – Ishant Arora

There is a feeling of nostalgia that dwells within every one of us. Nostalgic memories are like boxes of sweets from which you can never pick just one. You need to take a dozen at once and relish their sweetness in some corner of your mind and heart. Sometimes it happens that some of our old stories, memories, and bonds tend to open a thousand windows to our past and then we are left amazed. The real treasure we own is the treasure of being nostalgic.

From the day we step into our school, we start making memories. If you think you were having fun, this was not the case, since you were actually making those sweet memories which would become a major part of your future life. Those corridors where you spent hours and hours sitting with that one good friend and sorting out those trivial problems were, in reality, nothing compared to the hurdles we face as we grow up. The food we shared, the trips which made us independent and brought friends closer to us, the care, the concern, the laughter, the tears and every second we had been through in school ends up in the summation of memories.

The commercial money-minded contemporary world cannot weigh these precious moments with paper notes. They are born with us and will fade away only when our brain dies. While today everyone is running a rat’s race and has no time to even look after their health, these nostalgic moments can free us from all the stress and anxieties we come across. Some bring a wide smile on our face and some makes our lachrymal glands hyper secrete the gems we have in our eyes – tears.

The difference between now and then is that when we were little kids we were totally dependent on our heart for our actions. But as we grow up we come across the harsh reality of the world and the function of the heart is taken over by the mind.  It is of no doubt that the functions of both are exclusive. Nostalgia resides in the heart but memories dwell in the mind. Logically, nostalgia is that bridging junction between the heart and mind. Without this we would have been unfeeling robots which this mechanized world is making us.

One of the incidences I remember was from the time I had taken admission in a Pharmacy College as I was unable to get into a good medical college. That one year in my first-ever college inculcated a lot of memories in my mind. I had made friends who were just like family. After a year when I was successful in obtaining admission in a good medical college I was very hesitant to leave my people and my college but whether it is destiny or not I had to go. My friends had arranged a sweet little farewell and I was gifted a card with all my close ones’ wishes scribbled on it. Sadly, I have not talked to them for four years now. I miss them from the core of my heart but that farewell card – it’s still stuck in my journal and whenever I go back to it, I travel back to a time when things were simple and pure. I feel so nostalgic about it.

Coming to agents of nostalgia, they can be numerous, the most common being the diaries and journals we keep. They are the true witnesses of all the good and bad times we go through in this journey. They tend to capture all of our joyous moments; from the collection of those bills we had paid on a day out with friends to those key chains our pals bought for us to make us feel special. They carry the fragrance of nostalgia with them so that one fine day when we are burdened by the stress and pressure of our careers we can go back to them and be lost in the gala tales of our past. Those journals we write are a mere reflection of our heart and not the mind.

Finally, friends form the pillars of nostalgia. You dig out and sow the seeds of love and trust and they promise to flower. This is how the cycle works. Leaves or flowers might shed during some seasons but again in the spring they are back. Such is the nature of human friendship. Because we don’t form friendships in our mind, we form them in our heart and they reside there.

So, in this journey from heart to mind, the one thing that never alters is nostalgia. Keep it, appreciate it, but most of all live it.