A Little Writeup Effort From Me.

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3 years ago

Just today when I was looking for a book in my study, I found the novel "Good-bye, Mr. Chips." Y'all are familiar with this novel as it used to be a part of our course in Intermediate. As I was turning the pages deliberately, I found a page with this line highlighted in pink:

" What a host of little incidents, all deep-buried in the past -- problems that had once been urgent, arguments that had once been keen, anecdotes that were funny only because one remembered the fun. Did any emotion really matter when the last trace of it had vanished from human memory; and if that were so, what a crowd of emotions clung to him as to their last home before annihilation? "

I remember I highlighted these lines in pink. These lines didn't make that much sense to me back then as they did today. That novel never intrigued me much as it did today. May be because anything that is a part of our academic course doesn't intrigue us (to state the fact.)

So, I re-read this sentence. The novel was essentially based on the memories of the days that Mr. Chips spent at Brookfield. But the sentence "Did any emotion really matter when the last trace of it had vanished from human memory?" became the focal point of my interest. Is it really possible to vanish even the slightest trace of any emotion residing in our memory? Do people really abandon their thoughts and emotions for things that once counted the most? The question itself gave rise to a lot of questions. But the very next line "If that were so, what a crowd of emotions clung to him as to their last home before annihilation" contradicted the line before it. I read somewhere that when a person has an emotional reaction to something in his environment, there’s a 90 second chemical process that happens in the body; after that, any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop. Emotions come and go but feelings never die. We choose to live in that emotional loop willingly.

Same was the case with Mr. Chips. No feeling ever lost its charm for him. Even after all those years, he used to recall all those memories; good or bad, in his mind. And those memories were his only asset. The last scene of the novel; when he was on his death bed, what was that one thing that still kept him going? It was the memories of his past that always kept him going. As he shut his eyes for the final time, he was comforted by the thoughts of his beloved students. You see, that's how memories play their part in our life. They keep us going. Because as you grow older, things really don't seem to intrigue you and that's just the memories of the past, be it the pleasant ones or the unpleasant ones, that keep you going. And when I state the unpleasant memories as well, I mean the struggle, the hardships you suffered to become that one person.

That person is the one you feel proud of the most, when it comes to recalling the past. So why not live life with the hope that each day you spend, every person you meet, every act you do, leaves a trace upon you and everyone that makes you recall and cherish your past memories, the same way Mr. Chips cherished them? Because in the end, when you're old in your 70's 80's, these little things are the ones that matter the most.

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