Author: Ajmal

Sara Sheridan once wrote, “To me, reading through old letters and journals is like treasure hunting. Somewhere in those faded, handwritten lines, there is a story that has been packed away in a dusty old box for years.” All of us bump into these kinds of packed memories in the form of old letters, artifacts, photographs, and other archives. In 2014, while cleaning some old rusty corners in the house, I had unearthed an old photo album. It contains some priceless photographs of my parents and grandparents before my birth. I was showing each picture to my grandmother to know the story behind it. Senior family members of mine may get some very interesting snaps of them in 70s trendy bell-bottom pants and 80s signature costumes. Those were film photographs on or before 1985ish times. Some of these photographs were damaged, yet some are intact. Even though some of the photographs have lines of chemical damages visible, they just dissipate when we are able to see smiling faces of family at some corner of that damaged aged photograph, a beautiful moment of frozen time. Memories like these never leave the premise of our minds. Through books and archives, they bounce back on you! These are treasure troves that are keys to many of our memory locks.