In my third and fourth grade in the US, we’d received yearbooks at the end of school, which contained photos of all the students and teachers of that year. Lately, I’ve been taking out these slim books, and I’ve been almost…well, studying them. I’ve been matching names to pictures, trying to find out the origin and culture of each student, finding resemblances between siblings, saying out loud unusual names I find there, over and over to myself – tasting and rolling them in my mouth as though they were gumballs, and generally just wondering what these people – half of whom I didn’t even know – are doing now. But these yearbooks have only two years worth of memories, and I wanted to go back. That’s why I ended up looking at my kindergarten, first grade, and second grade class pictures. I realized that I had had many classmates with whom I had later become friendly, but that year I had barely known them.
After examining these pictures, I took out two calendars which had been made with my baby photos. One thing led to another, and soon Amma, Sachin, and I were poring over a thick photo album that contained many of Sachin’s baby pictures. We saw my brother at birth and a few weeks later – a little infant with unblinking eyes and extreme expressions - shock, anger, or others of that sort! And I, as a jealous 3 year old, had invariably crept into each of his photos, either looking grumpy myself, or trying to cradle a grouchy brother. Sifting through the pages, we saw Sachin transform from a bald baby to the unforgettable, odd, but cute toddler. I turned 5 and started going to school, which resulted in my old friends popping up more and more in the pictures.
After examining these pictures, I took out two calendars which had been made with my baby photos. One thing led to another, and soon Amma, Sachin, and I were poring over a thick photo album that contained many of Sachin’s baby pictures. We saw my brother at birth and a few weeks later – a little infant with unblinking eyes and extreme expressions - shock, anger, or others of that sort! And I, as a jealous 3 year old, had invariably crept into each of his photos, either looking grumpy myself, or trying to cradle a grouchy brother. Sifting through the pages, we saw Sachin transform from a bald baby to the unforgettable, odd, but cute toddler. I turned 5 and started going to school, which resulted in my old friends popping up more and more in the pictures.
Looking through photo albums is like looking at stills of a movie you’ve seen before, but have forgotten. You must rely on those single moments to be able to string them together to form the whole story.
I don’t remember much about my days back then. All I can say is that, looking at those wondrous eyes and real smiles, has left me with the feeling that life had been great then, maybe even picture perfect…..
No comments:
Post a Comment