Childhood Nostalgia

8th Jan was my wife's birthday and we spent the whole day together going around bangalore. One of the places we went to was cubbon park. Before this, the last time i went to cubbon park as a kid was 16 years ago in 7th grade. Cubbon park is a major landmark for bangaloreans and a cherished part of our childhood back in the 90's. Bangalore was a very quiet city back then without the umpteen number of malls and multiplexes which it has now. As a kid the major attractions for me were the park, the yearly Jumbo circus, the Planetarium and a couple of movie theaters in majestic. yes, thats it! :) hard to believe?

Then I got caught up in studies so much that i hardly went anywhere in high school, and ten years ago we moved to our new home in the suburbs which is quiet far away from Cubbon park and i couldn't find time to go there much. Anyway, the point is even when we grow up why do we always feel like kids when we visit the places where we spent our childhood, what is the reason for this emotion? It made me both happy and sad at the same time but there is no explanation for either. It felt vaguely like coming full circle to where you started. A kind of nostalgic happiness.

I feel the same emotion when i go to my school or to my old neighbourhood. My body feels like a 28 year old but my mind reacts like a 12 year old. Do parts of our mind get stuck in different phases of our life and their events? I wonder what it would be like when i turn 60! Maybe then i will be nostalgic about today, about this post. :-)