nt we even try to re-live these events or emulate the way we are brought up, maybe this gives us a sense of familiarity and comfort.We are on our way to the bookstore, the sun shines brightly above our heads and is stinging my eyes. I glance in the rearview mirror and notice a Mexican restaurant that is decorated with cactuses and sombreros. It brings to mind the desert, heat, rain and ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’. I remember watching the movie when I was eight years old. It’s a hot summer day and I wish it would rain. A song from the movie comes to mind ‘raindrops keep falling on my head’, it evokes images of bikes and Robert Redford with his blonde hair which in turn reminds me of hay. I ask my brother -who is now totally engrossed in the music and moving his head in a way one does when enjoying music- if he associated Robert Redford’s blonde hair with hay. “You’re weird” he replies. Once again I realize how memories define how we view the world around us. I wonder what other people would associate with cactus and sombreros on a hot summer day. In so many ways my memories defined me. Which according to my brother would be weird.We reach our destination, as I enter the bookstore I smell the crisp smell of new books. I browse through the books in different aisles and come across a whole section of books on Leonardo Di Caprio the actor of Titanic fame. I study his face on the cover of a book. He is so pretty. Pretty boys remind me of Oscar Wilde’s book ‘Portrait of Dorian Gray’. I wonder if Leonardo’s life is similar to the character of Dorian Gray. While contemplating the thought, I recall how I had found that book in my grandfather’s study, when I was around fifteen years old. His library was fascinating filled with old books, wisdom and dust accumulated over what seemed to me his eternal lifetime. Thinking of my grandfather gav...
