Faded Photographs

Sometimes the only solace to loneliness is the fading photographs around me... many pictures in black and white, some of them are in albums, some on the wall - in ornate frames, which I would never replace! The oxidized metal carries the aroma of the past, Pictures speak to us, aloneness dissipates! The picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day…the beaming bride in a red saree and the shining gold jewellery adorning her, my dad looked the handsomest man I have ever seen, and chivalrous...even now they take my breath away! A picture of the family together with young and old - my elderly grandparents,  when they settled in a new country, with hopes and dreams in their eyes... protecting members of an uprooted clan, perhaps the nostalgia and uncertainties lurk - behind the longing for the land they had left overnight! The most precious photograph in my life is the picture of my mother’s father... who I never met, except in this painting… but in my tender moments I dreamed about him ! A dazzling man on a horse, to me a knight in armour, who passed away tragically in his prime… Each one of these photographs present a story of courage, and love, and determination… which were the traits they passed on to their children, and the future generations! The photographs are the witnesses of a glorious past, a past which manifested the history of struggle and victory. Photographs get faded, History does not!