Saturday, February 20, 2010

Can music and perfume really bring memories?

I've always wondered about this and experienced it quite a few times. Have you? Some songs and scents bring back specific memories very strongly, you will remember them wherever you are. I feel the recollection of events so strong that it either makes me ecstatic or extremely depressed. In fact, I stopped using a particular perfume, after I realised that it reminds me of a phase of life that I want to forget about. It would be such a natural process of the memories floating in , deja vus happening, that it seems so normal. I guess I should ask Alex about it the next time I talk to him to see if there is any research going on around this :) probably it makes a good thesis topic for him!

Friday was one such day. I was in my office cabin and it was late in the evening on Friday. The office was relatively empty and I decided to listen to some songs on Raaga. Its been a long time since I listened to good songs. However, I've realised that my playlist doesnt change much. I cannot move beyond a particular period and that is the period of my college days and a little after that. So there it was, one my all time favourites - Dum Dum Dum. As I was listening to 'Ragasiyamai' I felt myself smiling at what I was reminded of. One of my very close friends in college really hates the song. And she used to find this song that I liked, "wicked" - of all things :D Coming to think of it, I think my choice was unique :) Not many people liked that song.
I was grinning listening to the song, thinking about my friend and her desperation when this song would run in a loop, as a sole song in the playlist. Almost naturally, my thought flowed to the fun we had in class around deciding the songs based on the mood of the class. I'm literally laughing to myself thinking of the Maths class in our first semester where the 'strict' mam was teaching about the 'cot' function and the 'tan' function. And she squealed in laughter at the song that I suggested for the class. Hmm...I better not write more as some things are better kept a secret. If X is reading this, I'm pretty sure she'll remember the song and even more sure that she would be laughing to herself. :) :)

BTW, my co-ordinates have changed from 17 deg N and 78 deg E to 47 deg N and 122 deg W :D