I was talking to a friend who is in a different hemisphere and another time zone altogether so we barely get to speak. You know how marriage and having kids tends to pull girl friends apart, as each new member gets added to the family you take a step back from your friends to fit these new additions. Yet when you suddenly speak to them one day its like finding a time capsule from a past ‘you’. A you that was friends with this girl. A you different things happened to, I managed to speak to her for about 20 minutes but for hours after that random memories would pop up unbidden in my mind.

Where was it that I remembered walking along? Was it morning or evening? Where was that yumm channa chaat place we used to frequent, why can I taste the chaat but not remember the name of the place, Dang it! OH gosh we really did do that dance I hoped was a bad dream didn’t we? It was real then. I had fervently hoped that vague memory was a mistake, obviously not.

The mind even raked up things that had nothing to do with her, like I don’t have enough to fill my mind with in a regular weekday, this time capsule was conjuring up happy thoughts from 20 years ago.

The kids went about staring at me while I giggled or frowned through this onslaught of ‘my life from 20 years ago!’ sitcom. The thing with memories of happy times or times when our lives were much simpler is that they leave you with a warmth that is all yours. Of a time before you were responsible for tiny little humans that took up space in your heart and bed in equal measure, a time when you thought getting caught walking out the gate was an act of rebellion.

A time when Yahoo messenger in dark, dinghy computer centers on road corners where teenagers would cram into one booth to share secrets. Fun, simple, rebellious times whose stories are locked in with the people that shared them with us.

It seems like it’s time to make a call schedule and speak to friends and unlock those time capsules.