Like Anna, Like Me.

Remember I was saying in one of the earlier posts that Anna used to have his hands over my shoulders in almost all my childhood photos? Well, here are a couple of snaps which caught my attention when I was rummaging through our old photo albums.

The week long trips to places like Kerala, Mysore et al during our annual summer vacations was one of the most important happenings in any given calendar year for me when I was a kid.

The above photo was taken during one of our many trips to Kodaikanal & Ooty. Anna and me atop a surprisingly well-fed prancing(?!) horse for a ride around the lake. It takes two to tango! May 1992.
This one was taken during our trip to Kolkata and Darjeeling. Anna, Amma, Valli and me on the banks of Hooghly I guess. May 1994.

One thing that strikes me whenever I see that second photo is Anna's watch. Anna used to have this habit of developing a rapport, an intimate relationship with anything he uses on a regular basis from shirts to watches. And hence the reluctance to part with that particular entity even if it's well past its normal utility period and it becomes obsolete! Same was the case with that watch too. A gray strapped titan with white dials for hours and minutes and a red one for seconds. He was wearing it for God-Knows-how-long. My guess is that he should have been using it for at least 7 to 8 years on the trot. Now that's a long time to be in love with a watch, by any yardstick, however good it may be! Yet another of Anna's unique traits.

Anna used to maintain a collection of a lot of materials as memorabilia. For instance, he used to archive all his exam hall tickets - from engineering entrance test to all his semesters. That's his way of remembering and reliving his memories.

Perhaps that's how the bug bit me too and that's how I explain my constant preoccupation with collecting things of seemingly trivial importance wherever I go and in whatever I do. If you were one of those types, then you would know how special you would feel when you go through your 'collections' on a lonely Sunday afternoon. Like Anna. Like me.

Thank you, Bro.

Miss you Anna - Sethu.