The dust bin of history

It may look no better than trash to many, but to me it’s a treasure trove that I guard with my life. The cleaning bug may bite now and then but there are certain areas where the broom never makes a clean sweep, where the duster never ventures. So the dried flowers stay in cardboard boxes, the cards and letters are bundled into plastic bags while the coffee mugs — so what if they’re broken? — are turned into pen stands. The other stuff — the one with ‘extra’ sentimental value: the shirt I wore at my last day to school and which was signed by all friends, the many slam books, a biology answer sheet in which I scored full marks — is also preserved.

After all, each one of these collectibles is not just any old thing. Each one is a memory. A book is not just a book. With the date and place where I bought it (or got it!) scrawled on every one without fail, each one is a little bit of the past in the present. One is a 21st birthday gift from my sister, another, a pick-me-up shot I gave myself when I was down in the dumps.

People may see just a bunch of papers when they sneak a peek into a drawer. But that’s not quite true: here is a bunch of articles and pieces that are crying out to be read — on a rainy day perhaps — and those many slips of paper have phone numbers and e-mail id’s that have to be transferred to a diary — some day. Every chocolate wrapper also tells a tale. The one with a dried flower in it was one of the first my husband gave me. The M&M’s: a gift from my five-year-old nephew.

A cousin jokes that my ‘have it, hoard it’ nature is most visible if someone has a look at my wallet, which is bursting at the seams with family photographs and a myriad jottings. But the fact remains that being up close and personal with all things personal is therapeutic. That’s what even the experts say — that’s why they recommend ‘personalising’ your work desk.

That’s why seeing all this memorabilia leaves you with a smile on your face, no matter how dreary the day. I may have gotten on to my hobby-horse here. But these are not trash, remember, they are collector’s items!