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Do you remember ?

Do you remember ?

Do you remember ?

nostalgia, n. — from the Greek nostos, homecoming, and algos, pain. The ache of wanting to return.

by

Ishaan Gangavkar

3 min read

3 min read

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Blog Image
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New York in the 90s, Paris in the 20s. 


Your 18th Birthday party or your first memory with your friend.


That one summer you spent exploring every nook and cranny of your city, that one song that transports you to a different time in your life, or even seeing the pack of cigarettes your ex used to smoke. Regardless of the fragments which preserve these memories through images, sound or emotion, those memories belong to a world which no longer exists. No matter how we lived through these memories, or the wishes that consumed us, nostalgia possesses the power to alter our perception of both the past and the present.


For you reading, ask yourself this: What is it that makes us yearn for the remnants of our past? Why does our heart ache for a time that has long passed, a memory almost faded? Why is it that we long for a home that was never ours? Maybe we seek an escape. Perhaps those memories offer us comfort in our darkest times, reminding us of a time before the uncertainty of the present.  


So, why do we keep chasing something we can never return to, and how can we learn to create, despite that longing?



As the dictionary says, nostalgia describes the pain of wanting to return. The Swiss physician who coined the term defined the condition as a diagnosis, something waiting to be cured. Yet unlike other ailments, emotions cannot be so simply solved.  Recognising the gap between the past and the present, realising that the past cannot be retrieved and somehow believing the past to be better than the present is a dire and all-encompassing emotion. 


Leaving one feeling confused, from the mourning of the past, the longing for the moment, yet finding grace and gratitude for that very moment, bound in time, nostalgia can hit in the most unexpected ways. Lately, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this plethora of emotion is simply my mind’s attempt at comforting me through a period in time where change is all around me. It helps me process the end of a chapter, reconnect with an earlier, maybe idealised version of myself, and even helps me prepare for the beginning of a chapter anew. 



However, Nostalgia has a funny way of feeding into us. Whenever I recall the adventures of my childhood friends, it is the slightest things that take me back. That one song, when the first of us got our heart broken, the graffiti in my basement that my mother reminds me of to this day, even the pattern of the autumn leaves scattered across the park- these memories I hold on to so firmly. 


With our modern age, the snapshot of a camera just a tap on the phone away, writing down moments in excruciating detail has been my method of dealing with nostalgia. I look back and try to recall every single element of that story that I might want to remember, and begin to note every detail down. Having examined the memory as thoroughly as I could, I might try to write a story, refining the story by including and omitting those fond memories as I see fit. This process takes me back after school with my friends in the basement, playing video games, and brings me an unbundled sense of comfort that I could never find in its absence. 



Artists being able to carry with them, to transform their nostalgia into their art, is a truly powerful phenomenon. Hearing Sade’s smooth, elegant and aching voice over the brushed drums, feeling the very emotions of longing that she is so tastefully embedding in her music. The desire of a simple, communal life found in the Warli Paintings originating from West India is one to be admired. 


To invoke those feelings of emotion in someone who simply glances by, and make their heart ache for someone through the sheer power of your art is a talent to be bewildered. As I flip through old notebooks, reading the words written by my cousin when she came to visit all those years ago instantly takes me back into that memory, and anytime I read her work today, I am transformed into the same 8-year-old stunned by the grasp of the English language that my cousin possesses. 



Artists being able to carry with them, to transform their nostalgia into their art, is a truly powerful phenomenon. Hearing Sade’s smooth, elegant and aching voice over the brushed drums, feeling the very emotions of longing that she is so tastefully embedding in her music. The desire of a simple, communal life found in the Warli Paintings originating from West India is one to be admired. 


To invoke those feelings of emotion in someone who simply glances by, and make their heart ache for someone through the sheer power of your art is a talent to be bewildered. As I flip through old notebooks, reading the words written by my cousin when she came to visit all those years ago instantly takes me back into that memory, and anytime I read her work today, I am transformed into the same 8-year-old stunned by the grasp of the English language that my cousin possesses. 



Now, coming back to the question I posed in the beginning. What is it that makes us come back to those memories? How can we create art amidst that aching? 


Maybe the answer is not to stop aching altogether, but to understand it. To live, to create through that nostalgia. To create art of those very memories that comfort us, or haunt us in the night. To reflect upon them, to remember them, and I believe that it is through that process of creation of some form of physical art that we can let go of the grip that nostalgia holds upon us and learn to appreciate it for the moment itself. 


Introspection and reflection are a crucial part of an artist's journey. Understanding not only yourself, but why we care about the things that we do, how we can bring them along in our journey, and how to use them as fuel to ignite the flame we have been waiting for all this time. Even in recalling the memories I described, the paintings hung up in the living room of my childhood home or the massive golden Y sprayed across the basement in my grandparents' house, I now hold on to these moments fondly. This theme itself has impued in my the importance of remembering those memories that I keep revisiting, and I cannot wait to share more stories of Basement LLC.  



Now, coming back to the question I posed in the beginning. What is it that makes us come back to those memories? How can we create art amidst that aching? 


Maybe the answer is not to stop aching altogether, but to understand it. To live, to create through that nostalgia. To create art of those very memories that comfort us, or haunt us in the night. To reflect upon them, to remember them, and I believe that it is through that process of creation of some form of physical art that we can let go of the grip that nostalgia holds upon us and learn to appreciate it for the moment itself. 


Introspection and reflection are a crucial part of an artist's journey. Understanding not only yourself, but why we care about the things that we do, how we can bring them along in our journey, and how to use them as fuel to ignite the flame we have been waiting for all this time. Even in recalling the memories I described, the paintings hung up in the living room of my childhood home or the massive golden Y sprayed across the basement in my grandparents' house, I now hold on to these moments fondly. This theme itself has impued in my the importance of remembering those memories that I keep revisiting, and I cannot wait to share more stories of Basement LLC.  



However, Nostalgia has a funny way of feeding into us. Whenever I recall the adventures of my childhood friends, it is the slightest things that take me back. That one song, when the first of us got our heart broken, the graffiti in my basement that my mother reminds me of to this day, even the pattern of the autumn leaves scattered across the park- these memories I hold on to so firmly. 


With our modern age, the snapshot of a camera just a tap on the phone away, writing down moments in excruciating detail has been my method of dealing with nostalgia. I look back and try to recall every single element of that story that I might want to remember, and begin to note every detail down. Having examined the memory as thoroughly as I could, I might try to write a story, refining the story by including and omitting those fond memories as I see fit. This process takes me back after school with my friends in the basement, playing video games, and brings me an unbundled sense of comfort that I could never find in its absence. 


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