Destructive Distillation

Must be the family trip to Srisailam when I was three. Well, on thinking over it again I find that what I remember is a memory. This was the memory I had recollected when I was asked the same questions several years ago. But I fail to recollect the exact scenario. Only a snapshot remains. What I have is a memory of a memory.

Memories like the texture of sand, the lyrics and tune of your favourite song, the sound of knocking on the door are can be taken for granted. We know them too well. Memories are fragile objects; some of them are too risky to be trusted for a later use unless you have them noted down unbiased. Some memories do linger a long time. They must have created some intense emotion like love, hatred, joy, misery etc. I find a common man to retain memories of negative emotions like humiliation, misery etc much more efficiently than the positive ones. Maybe it has to do with our psyche like most other things we associate with.

Memories are formed by our senses and thus are invariably affected by our perceptions and impressions of or on various objects and persons. We tend to attach these existing feelings while creating new memories. This is one important reason why it is hard to form new opinions on people we already know. It is like past memories affect the newer ones. And every memory has strong vibes of feeling attached to it. We emphasise more on what we feel than what we see. Again we hardly look at everything we see.

Facts are more relevant than memories. A fact doesn’t change after a period of time or from person to person. There were ten chocolate chip biscuits in the Hide and Seek pack. Period. Where as memory can change the shape of a room, it can change the color of a car, height and build of a person. Memories can be distorted. Sometimes we don't want the truth. We make up our own truth. We tend to fill in the blanks in the memories not complete with what we think ought to be there. What makes them even more dangerous is that memories can be manufactured. This happens when our thoughts in several forms like dreams, criticisms, evaluations etc are converted into memory by our mind or even by someone ‘reminding’ you of something which dint exist or atleast hadn’t happened the way they paint it to be.

Memories are just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts. Facts are the ones we have to work our judgements and thinking on. Cos the never ending quest for humanity is the tenacity of being right.

Now what was the question again.. What was the earliest thing u remember in your life?

Hmmmm……………………