Bagful of Memories

As a run up to his 81st birthday and to actually create more boot space in my bed I pulled out two bags of old photo albums from long ago. Over the next 5 staggered hours I browsed through old photo albums and loose black and white photographs, postcards and film strips. As I tried to recognize people, places and faces I even found a few Kodak duplicates... those tiny cardboard frames that seem to hold a negative but when held up to the light they take on colour... This was a lot of nostalgia for the analogue photographer in me. I'd got these bagful of memories from a clean up operation at Vinayalaya when fr. Robin was shifting house from there into the presbytery at Holy Family Church and they eventually got dumped inside my bed at some later point in time

In 2015 they again saw the light of day, and a lot of the unrecognizable, termite infested pictures got ripped to bits and tossed into this mornings Garbage. Sifting through photos is always fun as you try and unlock the lives and time that's seemingly trapped in them! Pictures of Mother Theresa, Religious Conferences, World Travel, Weddings and Parties, various camps for families and youth organized at different places in Khandala... This old man has sure been around! Ancient photos of Ann and Wilfred, his parents reminded me of a part of his life I was never known to although I heard stories of. Pictures of his early religious years- a man of the cloth, a bright young dynamo preaching and singing from the pulpit... reaching out and touching lives! Then there were pictures of him eyes closed, both hands holding his darling Guitar. I must have then spotted scores of such pictures that remind me of all the music he has made and hymns he rendered unforgettable by his renditions. Una Paloma Blanca, The Baker Woman, He, Let it Be, You Have a Friend, Brother give me your hand... I'm sure we all have our personal lists of favourites sung by him and that strike a chord amongst us

This man has travelled the world right since the age of 17, undertaken sea voyages to Europe, lived alone away from home, Singapore, London, Spain, America whereas I- now turning 35 am yet to venture beyond Maharashtra and just got my reservations for a trip to Jammu. I keep looking for commonalities between us apart from the birthday we share and our love for Khandala and was quite surprised that he knew someone named Loretta back in 1981 long before I knew there would be a Loretta in my life!