A Bowlful of Nostalgia: Photo-Essay

Nostalgia kidnaps me suddenly, abruptly: sorting through hillocks of oranges at the grocery store, I find myself at Seeb souk, inhaling the fragrance of vegetables and fruits freshly arrived from Batinah farms. I bite into a pita-bread wrapped falafel at a local Syrian restaurant and there I am, outside Turkish Pearl below my office, the taste of pungent hummus intermingling with beetroot pieces in my sandwich. Brilliant blue skies of an over-zealous spring morning, a primrose-yellow door, or cold-warmth of the air, they all possess the ability to hold me ransom to the past, many pasts. Yet, they are merely momentary, these nostalgia-engineered abductions: one minute, you are home, the next minute, the axis of your world swiftly re-aligns back to the present - and you are so overwhelmingly  - here - now. 

The other day, I met my childhood friend and fellow blogger, Shazi for a couple hours of color-glazing ceramic figures; she chose a plate while my pick was a medium-sized bowl. I was earlier thinking of taking an introductory course in ceramics; I wanted to experience the feel of clay and shaping or throwing them into pots and bowls. However, I soon realised that I was more fascinated exploring the metamorphosis of different colored glazes into an alternative galaxy of hues and shades; they were the ones which would dramatically alter the character of the pot or bowl, bestowing upon them unique personalities.

For my bowl, I chose a color palette of pistachio, aquamarine, sapphire and sky-blues; once it was fired  and I brought it home, I set it in in a pool of sunlight and watched it further bake in the light. The sunlight deepened and energised the hues, making it an object of both fragility and solidity. And then, my eyes fell upon this sunset-colored key-ring, which I had brought with me all the way from Oman.

Nostalgia need not always be ephemeral, like sunsets, I thought: it can make a red-purple-gold home for itself in a nest-shaped pond of blue, no more a creature of flight.

Blueness

Purple Voices

Bowlful of Nostalgia