T is for 'Time Capsule'

I don’t recall which movie it was that featured a group of girls recording a message for their future selves in 2050 and burying it in a box in a vacant plot of land. It was their ‘time capsule’. Was the movie the Britney Spears’-starrer ‘Crossroads’?

This concept has been featured in several Hollywood movies, none of which I can recall at the moment. But I think it’s something we must explore, especially if we are keen on collecting memorabilia and creating memories. It would be a great activity for students in school to perform. Here’s a link that explains more about what you can put in a time capsule and how to go about it.

In my post, ‘L is for letter writing,’ I’d explored the idea of creating an email account for your newborn (if you are a parent) and sending emails to your baby for years and years and then giving your child the access to the account when he /she becomes an adult.

That, too, is a kind of time capsule. How about leaving video messages for your family, friends and well-wishers that they can access on a certain date in the future? It has a definite charm and appeal to it. Whatever a person can do, they cannot turn back time. Your time capsule would be a way to journey into the past and revisit forgotten times. Nostalgia buffs would love something like this.

Very few families can go back three or more generations in the past to find out how their forefathers lived. Unless some documentation, photographs or videos are available, it is not possible to leave a mark in history for future generations. Every person’s educational qualifications, achievements, hobbies, traits and positive qualities must be made note of and recorded for posterity. It is a way to preserve one’s legacy, and these days there are online sites to create such family trees like https://www.geni.com/ and others. Are you aware of any? Do let me know in the comments section. Also, do mention if this idea of a time capsule appeals to you.

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How hobbies can enrich one’s life

Everybody needs a hobby. Some people are naturally more predisposed to boredom. These are the creative ones that if encouraged and nurtured can go on to change the world. But before they save the world, they need to save themselves. As the saying goes, no one can pour out of an empty cup. Many artists and creative folk are prone to listlessness and depression. They need hobbies to keep them afloat in choppy seas and help them tide over challenges. Sometimes, they are prone to dark moods and anger, too. The only way to heal is through staying engaged creatively. What will help is to stay amidst verdant surroundings in a peaceful place with few disturbances so that one can delve into one’s artistic self and draw from the wellspring of creativity that lies within. It must be tapped because unless one uses it, one loses it. It’s just like one’s grey cells. It needs regular honing and application. Creative people owe it to themselves, if not to the world, to try to create, even through th...

N is for 'newspaper clipping collection'

People have collected newspaper clippings over the years and stuck them onto their scrapbooks. My dad cuts out a newspaper clipping, of say, a book review, and keeps it inside the book in question. My dad tells me an anecdote of the time he was a student in IIT and one of the boys he met during an inter-university student leader’s conference had a huge collection of newspaper clippings on Kamaraj. The boy had collected news clippings of every news item pertaining to the Tamil political leader and arranged them chronologically in his scrapbook. Others collect pictures of strange UFO sightings, criminal cases covered in the media, favourite cooking recipes, pictures of touristy places and music festivals. I’ve not been in the habit of collecting newspaper clippings, and now with print editions rapidly folding up, it doesn’t seem like a good time to start. I just add sites I want to go through later to my Bookmarks. These days, people do online scrapbooking. I’m plann...

H is for 'Horseriding'

Yes, this( horseriding) is a hobby, too, albeit for the rich and famous. Tourists visiting hill stations can go horseback riding with guides leading the way. Children can ride small ponies in beaches, as I have done as a child. The last time I sat on a pony was when I was about ten years old. At least that’s the last time that comes to mind. Here’s a picture of me with a pony in Kashmir. My parents and I were tourists visiting J&K in the 80s. A simple Google search throws up a list of results for horse riding schools in Chennai alone. Talking of horses, the scene from the movie Godfather comes to mind, when a beloved racehorse Khartoum is found dead and its head severed on the bed as a threat from Marlon Brando’s character. A lot of ‘Westerns’ in Hollywood couldn’t have been made without horses. More recently, the film ‘The War Horse’ was made. In Indian movies, the heroine on horseback or riding a horsedrawn carriage ( li...

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