ডাকবাংলা

‘…Never Seem to Find the Time’

Nostalgia. Growing up in Calcutta, one gets deeply acquainted with this word, this feeling. This city is practically drenched in it.

But I want to talk about a very specific kind of nostalgia, one that goes far beyond the reaches of this city. Perhaps one becomes even more acutely aware of it because of this place.

As a part of the youth of a time, I have noticed we keep looking back at the experiences, the art, the culture of the youth who have lived before us. I have personally felt this deep longing, an aching familiarity with the youth of times gone by. I keep missing a time or several pockets of time I was never a part of. 

When I was a child, I used to love to dust and arrange my father’s music collection. A few years back I went back to it and I found a Beatles cassette. The feeling when I held it in my hands can only be described as an odd sort of nostalgia. It seemed to trigger a memory as well as a wish to truly know, what watching them become ‘The Beatles’ in person would have felt like.

I don’t necessarily want to go back in time, although of late the idea doesn’t sound half-bad, considering the approaching elections. However, hypothetically speaking, if I did have access to a time machine, I would definitely not give up on the opportunity of some temporal globe-trotting.

Let’s assume I can only choose to travel to three different eras before I return to my time, or else this article will never end.

In that case, the following are the top three temporal vacations I absolutely must take. I must also add a disclaimer: a lot of my choices are deeply influenced by music I’ve heard and pop culture I’ve encountered and the stories surrounding them that continue to fascinate me. 

The first decade I’d like to stop by via this temporal train reads 1960s, and the station is called none other than The Big Apple.

The 1960s in New York City was when Madison Avenue was roaring with Mad Men, it was when Leonard Cohen met Janis Joplin at Chelsea Hotel, it was when Joan Baez called Bob Dylan up on stage to sing with her and the rest is history as we know it. 

Also, personally, from what I’ve seen from shows set in this era and films of this time, I love the fashion and the nightlife this decade offered. 

Let’s move on to our second destination. I’m a little unsure exactly which decade to pin it to, but let me paint a picture anyway.

I’m a huge fan of medieval adventure novels and a tad bit of romance with it doesn’t hurt. The major reason for choosing this era would be to learn sword-fighting and riding horses across town and maybe even sailing across the seas, how very exciting. 

It would be a world untouched by modern communication methods, only letters. I really, genuinely want to know how that feels like, especially considering that it would only be temporary for me.

So I guess after living in what would be a time straight out of a page of an Arthurian romance novel, I would feel rather homesick but I still would be one station away from home. No one said it can’t be a close one. My last stop: 1980s stepping onto 1990s Calcutta. 

This one is oddly personal, but I want to know how my hometown looked like when my parents were growing up. I want to experience the music and the theatre, actually be able to watch Moheener Ghoraguli perform live and Utpal Dutt on stage. I want to feel and understand the political rhetoric that fuelled the art that was made at the time. I want to know what being in love looked like, and how different it was from what I’ve experienced.

I want to watch how films were made on reel, the process, the conversations and what inspired my father to take it up in the first place. I want to watch my grandfather on stage or on a shooting floor. I want to be able to flesh out all the stories about him I keep hearing from senior actors and technicians I happen to work with now. 

In other words, I want to see, first-hand, the very inspirations and aspirations of their generation. 

Once I’m back, I would write an explosive novel about it. No one would believe me, so I’d call it fiction. 

Illustration by Suvamoy Mitra

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