Movies, Fragrances and memories


I was watching a movie on TV. Independence Day. It reminds me of my college days cause’ that's when it was released and I and my friends went to watch it in the cinema theater.
There are these props in life that has memories sticking to it and when you revisit those props... the memories are refreshed! Books .. clothes... movies.. music… they all have the ability to take us into our pasts. Like if there was a book that was introduced to me by a friend, I can’t take the book again or remember it without also remembering the friend and then I start dreaming about that person. There are songs that take you back to the moment. One of my cousin brothers, introduced me to ‘The Eagles’. And whenever I hear the song ‘ New kid in town’, I revisit the summer vacation at my grand mom’s place listening to the song and playing caroms! The days of leisure, they were. In fact most things around you can do that. Now, fragrance is the most sticky. A particular perfume would take you back years to a very specific moment! Its amazing. I used to walk to my tuition classes in autumn and this particular fragrance was in the air. I don’t know what flower it was. But years later I chanced upon the same smell and I was instantly transported mentally to that moment… Its magical. The smell l of Johnson’s baby powder takes me to the early days with my daughter!
Now we can’t bottle up fragrances on whim but we can enjoin a particularly special moment with a fragrance. What I mean is, suppose you are about to embark on a pleasant journey, perhaps on your first date, or the day you moved into your house, or the day you brought your baby home. You could buy a new perfume for the occasion and spray it in the air so the event and the fragrance are for ever united. And every time you sniff that particular perfume, you will be instantly transported to that moment in past!
Going back to ‘Independence Day’ I couldn't help but wonder how cliched the theme was. The direction utterly predictable. The aliens always pick the Americans to start the war. And of course the flamboyant men in uniform save us all! I can’t imagine how we loved the movie then. The good looking actors probably veiled our reasoning and our youthful hearts were made to flutter! Though I couldn't enjoy the movie now, I couldn't help but be moved in the emotional scenes. Even though I knew what was in store and who would die and who would kiss… I still was emotionally stirred. You can’t help it. Is it a women thing? And after the movie as I lay thinking before sleep overcame me, it occurred to me that at the core of all these movies, there was essentially human emotions .Whether a drama or a fantasy fiction or an out and out action thriller, what moves us are the human emotions. No matter what we create, the ugliest aliens, or unbelievable beings like in Avatar or the classic ‘ lord of the rings’ or any war movies or any animation movie… At the core lie things like love, honor, courage, hope no matter how we dress it up.