Their first roll on, their first crawl, their first stand up, their first step, first hold on the feeding bottle, their first mottai (tonsure) their prayer time, rhyme time and all the natural camaraderie the two little ones shared, their special moments like birthday, ayush homam, vidyarambham, their bonding with their grandparents, their nursery days, their outings, early school events and beyond( they are still in school) were silently captured by my camcorder and some of them on my still cameras (analog one). Their milestones are also recorded in a scrap book.
The still photos developed into many albums and every event was marked. The videos captured were all copied on an anti-fungal Panasonic VHS-casette ( CD’s were not popular 14 years back) and safely kept (or so I thought) to be cherished later. The photos taken during their pre-school days in my digital camera were all stored on my computer.
Days roll by fast and before I realize my children have grown. Now, These memories link our present with the past. I want them to remember those old times and reminiscence on their infancy and early childhood (they are now at 14 and 11.8).
During holidays, it is our favorite past time to watch all those photo albums. We huddle together and enjoy all their infanthood moments which are carefully captured and preserved in photo albums. I recall to them all the warm memories of their baby hood times which they treasure and enjoy listening. They enjoy this wonderful trip back in time and always ask me gleefully,
“amma, naan chinna kuzhandai ya irukkum bodu enna sonnen?’’ ( Amma, what did I talk when I was a baby?)
All the while, I was aware that my children’s beautiful times of childhood are safe in a VHS casette. Our VCP is not in working condition and is stored in the attic and since they have become obsolete, we never bothered to watch the videos.
I recently decided to burn the VHS cassette into a DVD so that we could sit and watch their childhood videos, but was greatly disappointed when the DVD shop owner told me that the cassette was corrupted and he could not read the cassette. All those priceless moments which were made with love are now lost.
Luckily my daughter’s appearance in the kannada movie ‘ amma ninna tholinalli’ for a song sequence with her little friends when she was 5 years old, her first dance show from her dance academy at town hall,Bangalore (again at the age of 5) which was relayed on TV were all recorded in a separate VHS. These could be burnt, albeit not perfectly.
The photos of my children captured on the digital camera which were stored on my old computer were also lost when my computer crashed.
All the memories which were such an incredible part of our life have been lost. Time does not stand still, my children are growing fast, what will they have to look back on their times spent together and growing days?.
I want them to reminiscence about their past when they grow up.
Except those photo albums and a few scrap books and yes, I hope this blog survives and in later days this serves to make their hearts smile.
“Life-long blessing for children is to fill them with warm memories of times together. Happy memories become treasures in the heart to pull out on the tough days of adulthood”
Charlotte Davis Kasl
Such sweet pictures. A pity your photos and videos were lost, but nothing can remove the memories from your heart.
ReplyDeleteeexcellent post gr8 pixs
ReplyDelete@ raji aunty- thank you. your comments are special to me.
ReplyDelete@R.Ramesh - Thank you.
ReplyDeleteshukriya ji
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