Happy new year people... leave the past behind !

 Happy new year people... leave the past behind !

As we are shifting house I have been in the process of discarding a lot of old stuff.
My family members are a little less practical and more emotional, sentimental people.

My husband’s PG days hand written notes, half eaten by moths, damp , discolored were lying in a carton for a quarter of a century.
I was segregating the trash into 2 segments one which will go to the kabadiwaala and the other to dustbin, realizing that the moth eaten notes will not be accepted even by kabadiwaala I dumped them into a carton , a makeshift dustbin .

While I was doing this in the living room during the early hours of morning, the man walks in rubbing his eyes and peeps into the dustbin to check what all I disposed.

He picks up the notes and gives me a look of how dare you!
How could you! I said its 21 years since you passed your PG , for what do you need these notes now ? , and moreover your subject has evolved so much and you have learnt a lot more than what Is in them , they aren’t even readable anymore, why do you still want to hang on to them .

I said enough of it, I am exhausted handling your emotional baggage, and you attach your emotions to everything and anything.
 Either they will go to the new house or I will. He exclaimed and said as if I really have choice !

i said Yes you don’t, so leave the notes in the dustbin and don’t come this side I am throwing out a lot of your stuff today...

Then I went to the daughters desk, thoroughly cleansed her table to my heart’s content I threw out the centuries old chocolate wrappers, the one eyed , amputated,, quadriplegic , bald , semi naked Barbie dolls , pen caps , one inch length crayons, both side sharped pencil bits. I kept intact her childhood drawings, paintings and school diaries.

I did not dare to touch the son’s shelf in his absence fearing I would end up losing a finger or 2, as he has accumulated various chemical potions in small bottles from different labs.
 I left an ultimatum to him in whatsapp that he will not be allowed into the new house with all his trash material collections.
When he came home yesterday for Christmas break I made him sit and threw out his old test tubes, dangerous chemicals. Once a neighbor who looked at the son’s shelf asked me “does he make bombs? Keep an eye on him Mrs Reddy hope he is not hobnobbing with the wrong guys, it was difficult explaining to her and to many other curious visitors to our house, his interest in weapons and everything that goes into making them.

But I enjoyed destroying their emotional baggage.
It was a burden for me taking care of their sentiments, managing their old accumulated stuff. Emotions are good, sentiments are good but they shouldn’t become a to liability others.
Learn from the past, grow wise and shed away the unwanted. Don’t accumulate but analyze, understand assimilate and move on …
Let’s not stay stuck in the past… let’s leave the past behind, to make space for new experiences..

happy new year people... leave the past behind !