The basis of all civilization, to me appears to be memory.
Memory to learn and pass on the learnings from each impulse and incident, Memory to chronicle the events as they happen to create what we now know as History.
How does this work?
What is the mechanism of Memory?
Welcome to all explanations of Memory from the scientific to the poetic, rational to the bizarre.
Let us celebrate Memory by spending some time dissecting its ways and means.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Defining Memories
The memory of a photograph in a newspaper - a lone, indistinct, a little afraid, scrawny teenager standing in front of a line of army tanks somewhere in China was my earliest memory of what Freedom and Democracy mean to each person.
Revolutions are never portraits in the gallery of memory. They are collages of odd instances and incidents perceived from an individualistic angle.
Most times (though we subscribe to the popular chronicles of History) we recollect History that happens around us through our individual reactions. Those are our frames of reference, our memory.
Where were you when 9/11 first entered your conscious world. What were you doing when You first came to know of Indira Gandhi's assassination. What memories do you associate with Emergency (if you are old enough). How did Mandal affect your consciousness.
Memories are our individual bards who celebrate History taking shape right in front of our eyes.
Memory is the greatest boon and is the biggest reason for evolution.
Memory is the greatest curse and the fountain of all sorrow.
Revolutions are never portraits in the gallery of memory. They are collages of odd instances and incidents perceived from an individualistic angle.
Most times (though we subscribe to the popular chronicles of History) we recollect History that happens around us through our individual reactions. Those are our frames of reference, our memory.
Where were you when 9/11 first entered your conscious world. What were you doing when You first came to know of Indira Gandhi's assassination. What memories do you associate with Emergency (if you are old enough). How did Mandal affect your consciousness.
Memories are our individual bards who celebrate History taking shape right in front of our eyes.
Memory is the greatest boon and is the biggest reason for evolution.
Memory is the greatest curse and the fountain of all sorrow.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Why memory Frames
Memory has the funny capacity like moving movie frames to fade out, to slo-mo, to freeze, zoom-in, zoom-out and in short create all sorts of metaphysical confusion a movie can create in your sub conscious.
Memory frames can be the candy floss romance which only contain sweet little nothings, or like a war movie remind you and force you to revisit the blood and gore of a mental landscape.
Surprisingly Memory frames are also the hinges around which we hang our doors and windows to the world. The value system is a mesh (sometimes a mess) that is strung across this frame of early memories of words (spoken or implied), images, the plausible feelings of hurt or elation related to incident(s).
We watch, again and again, master pieces of movies in all genres - the unrequited love stories, the stories we love because they scare the daylight out of us, the pathos patriotic tragedies, the "I know it is non sense, but I still like it maan" popcorns. WHY???
They make us feel alive and provide us the emotional stimuli we might feel we are missing out in real life.
This is an effort to dust out and recollect the very valuable memory frames and celebrate them.
If we can spend money and good time to go shed copious tears into our hand kerchiefs I think we can spend similar time in celebrating the memories that have defined our lives and the value systems we live by.
Welcome to this festival of memory frames. Like to exhibit your memory frames to the world, while you celebrate them. Go ahead, the world will be a better place with people who remember to know what they felt and let those feelings guide them.
Memory frames can be the candy floss romance which only contain sweet little nothings, or like a war movie remind you and force you to revisit the blood and gore of a mental landscape.
Surprisingly Memory frames are also the hinges around which we hang our doors and windows to the world. The value system is a mesh (sometimes a mess) that is strung across this frame of early memories of words (spoken or implied), images, the plausible feelings of hurt or elation related to incident(s).
We watch, again and again, master pieces of movies in all genres - the unrequited love stories, the stories we love because they scare the daylight out of us, the pathos patriotic tragedies, the "I know it is non sense, but I still like it maan" popcorns. WHY???
They make us feel alive and provide us the emotional stimuli we might feel we are missing out in real life.
This is an effort to dust out and recollect the very valuable memory frames and celebrate them.
If we can spend money and good time to go shed copious tears into our hand kerchiefs I think we can spend similar time in celebrating the memories that have defined our lives and the value systems we live by.
Welcome to this festival of memory frames. Like to exhibit your memory frames to the world, while you celebrate them. Go ahead, the world will be a better place with people who remember to know what they felt and let those feelings guide them.
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