Nostalgia a genre

 
Nostalgia is my favourite genre. A story about someone's past, the beautiful glorious past of some people with some wonderful memories and who want to share them with the world. They are not brooders who lament the past but the happy kinds who have a taste in their mouth of the old childhood foods, a pleasant whiff in their nose of childhood smells and echoing sounds  in their ears of childhood laughter and colors and scenes of a beautiful childhood. 

See my bibliography and you will realise Nostalgia features in most Childhood days of Satyajit Ray, Manto and his love for his mehbooba - Mumbai, Chitra Banerjee and her Bengali childhood, Satrapi and Persepolis from the Persian homeland, all books on partition from both sides of borders. 

Why do I still feel the association with Pakistan?  Is it because my grandmother was born there, or her forefathers lived there, or because that's where my roots come from or because I share a common past and life with them. Why do I relate to PTV as much as to DD? Their language, their manners, their humor, their sensibilities, they all remind me of something I am too. It's not Pakistan, it was Punjab, my homeland even before I was born. I inherited it from my parents and they did from theirs. That's why I enjoy authors from both the lands. 

This Nostalgia of childhood, of hometowns, of homelands, of families, of friends, of schools, of colleges, of reunions, of marriages, of past, of inheritance, of vintage, of antiques, of heritage, of old, of cherished, of history, of memories, of life, of life stories... Yes, Nostalgia, that's my favourite subject. 

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