12 Comments

One ubiqutous physical thing after another is now a part of our digital clutter...be it the Phone diary or picture post cards! And yes, it's so tough to get rid of 'em! You;re so good at capturing our collective behaviours!! Kudos buddy!!

Expand full comment

Thank you, Bhavesh. Yes, there is always a tug-of-war between keeping and letting go of stuff. Letting go is quite exhilarating.

Expand full comment

Nice piece Shantanu. I have always wondered why people click so many pics of the same pose and then send all of them. They could just select the best one and share it. Imagine the digital clutter if we save all of the pics. In the old world of camera with film rolls, you would decide to use two rolls. A max of 72 pics. So you would frame every pic carefully and click once compared to chaar-paanch nikal lo. Those 72 pics were stored in an album which you could actually see after a few years. Now with 700 pics of one trip, you are likely to skip most of them. I don’t recall looking at pics clicked a decade ago. Nobody used the desktop computer at home now. The only reason it’s still there becoz I aim to get hold of all my pics and docs that are still stored on that computer. It’s on the agenda when I get my next break. Maybe I will write a piece too. Keep them coming

Expand full comment

Thanks for your perspective, Sanjay. The digital world has made us wastrels, I guess. As far as clicking pictures are concerned, at one point the Japanese were seen as the most trigger happy people around. Their trigger happiness had become a meme in popular culture when the word meme didn’t exist. Guess the entire world has become Japanese now. All the best for your clean-up plans. It’ll be quite an experience, I promise you. And look forward to your write up on that experience.

Expand full comment

Shaayad... As we get older its easier to hold on to ourselves and let go of everything else.

Expand full comment

Very well put, Bhuvnesh.

Expand full comment

I loved reading your post. I see this conflict in my home with 3 teens n we the oldies.

Expand full comment

One is a handful for us … hats off to you for managing 3 and yet managing to laugh as much as you do.

Expand full comment

Completely resonate with the electronic spring cleaning process - went through ditto experience! Enjoyed the post Shantanu, keep more coming!

Expand full comment

Thanks, Devika!

Expand full comment

Well.... agree to most part of the story or introspection..... we are upbringing a use and throw generation.... but wont they too feel the need to have memories of their firsts? First watch, first report card, first mobile, first girl friend?! ;-)

Expand full comment

The way things are going, you could also add first parents to the list :-)

On a serious note, and this is based on a sample size of one GenZ at home, yes there are moments of reminiscing certain instances, but there’s no wistfulness of not having kept any physical items attached to those instances.

Expand full comment