Here’s the thing about memories, there are many many factors that create, affect and modify memories! It is the food you ate, the smell around you, the people you were with, the weather around you, the mood that you were in, how tired were you and every other single detail around you while the memory was getting created that contributes to the memory itself. To add on, your memory is only your perception or point of view and how you felt when a particular incident was happening and not really the ultimate truth or full picture of what happened. To top it all, memory also gets affected every time you recall a particular memory and also when you narrate it to another person. While doing so, you add your own memory of the original memory to the memory that now becomes your new original memory. Inception? Haha 😀
This thought was deeply running through my mind every step of the way through my recent Rajasthan trip. I did my first one with my Family in 2016 and now in 2023 with friends. Every place that I visited, reminded me of a few things from the past. It was as clear as it could get; I could see myself in 2016 doing certain things at certain places that was both exciting and nostalgic. I was swaying constantly between recreating/reliving those memories versus creating new memories with my friends in the same place. In certain places, there was no place for debate at all and the answer was to recreate the memories again just to go back in time and that sure made a smile a little wider and filled my heart with such warmth. Some of the non-negotiables were the samosa, bhajis and kachori from the small thela near the Ajmer Dairy in Pushkar, for sure recreating the above and below pictures in Amber Fort in Jaipur. Along with that, the adventurous jeep ride during sunset from Sam dunes back to the tent in Jaisalmer and succumbing to my basic need of wanting to sit down on the ground in all palaces to just take a break from the constant talking of the guide and admire the absolute B.E.A.U.T.Y of every palace and street of the most colorful cities that I have been to as far.
While I was ripped between reliving old memories and creating new ones, the only constant was how fragile and dynamic our memory was and the fact that we have all the world’s power to mend and remold our memories however we want to remember them!
I shall now leave you with thought, stay tuned for the next blog (spoiler alert :P) for my detailed itinerary and all the fun things we did during my recent trip to Rajasthan!