Why we want things to change yet remain the same?

The title of this blog-post was going to be 'The thing about nostalgia.' But I have already written so much on nostalgia that I decided to change it. 

So lately, I have been on Casey Neistat Vlogs marathon (perks of being jobless, I guess?). He is a very popular New York based Youtuber and for the right reasons. In this particular vlog, Casey and his wife are in Cuba and they talk about how beautiful the place is. Old buildings, old cars, quirky walls, slow pace of life and very few people glued on their mobile phones. Basically everything that a 'tourist' from a big city  like New York would love. 

Then I read this comment below the video:




It made me think. Whenever I think about visiting my grandparent's house in our village, I think about the wood-smoked tea or the little jewellery shop where they have mattresses laid out in the shop for customers to sit or the vegetable barter system

My mom has been to the village a few times in the last few years. And after each visit she would excitedly talk about the changes in her village. Like how the traditional wood-fire chulha (stove top) has been replaced by LPG gas stoves. How there's a refrigerator now. How there's a mall in her village's shopping town. It always made me sad that how things are not the same anymore and that I wouldn't find the things that I want to see when I visit the village next. 

Made me realize how selfish we can be in order to experience nostalgia. The allure of nostalgia can be so strong that we start wishing that things don't change around us. Though we want things in our lives to change, get better. For instance, a day without mobile phone is unimaginable for city residents. But on holidays they would want to go to a place with low or no mobile connectivity, forgetting the fact that it means the residents of the holiday place are so behind and disconnected from the advancements of a modern world. 

Like I always say, Nostagia is a Bit*h. 

Comments

Popular Posts