Ishaan has been asking me for some time to collect photos of his farewell from whomsoever might be in Delhi, scan them and let me have them for his site..
Rishi provided about four photos, and Zubin provided none, claiming he didn’t have any of passable quality. Sabina and Naomi provided not only photos, but also their slambooks this week.
Yesterday, I leafed through their slambooks and basked in a warm glow of nostalgia. Then I felt like a bit of a bastitch for doing so.
I don’t know aobut other people here, but I take memory very seriously. I guess Sabina and Naomi don’t find their slambooks all that private if they lent them out unasked for in the first place, but personally, it felt like a violation of other people’s private memories to go through them. After all, what’s written in a slambook has been written specifically towards the posessor thereof. I do enjoy sharing my meories, but only at times places, and with people of my choosing. If I had a slambook, I’d have a few reservations of just putting it in an envelope and giving it somebody for him to form his own memories.
Then again, maybe it’s just three years of objectt oriented programming taking over and insisting that everything be classified into public, private and protected. A blog is public, but a slambook is private.
And counterpoint again- if a slambook is actually as private as I think it is- it’s gratifying that people have enough faith in me to trust me with their private memories.
But still, I am very glad that I only leafed through and didn’t actually read any of the entries full blast.