The Past Perfect!

Past is always glorious, bewitching and enchanting -- be it a life of a society or a nation. Past always conjures up a sense of supremacy for societies around the world. ‘We were this or we were that’ gives a velvety shed from the scorching challenges of present. Every society longs for a revisit of past. It wants to revisit the glory of past that it is bereft of in the dominance of present.

Several wars have been fought on the face of the earth to revisit the golden dream of past. Societies and Nations alike have sacrificed tranquility of present to repeat the sheen of the past. Blood and brutality has been used several times in the space of time to move the clock backwards.

The penchant for past is inseparably embedded in  human psyche. Whenever we, as a nation or as a society, mention the word past, we tend to skim only achievements and ignore debacles. And this tendency to embrace glory and avoid gloom is a cardinal force behind our infatuation for past.

Whenever archeologists excavate traces of forgotten civilizations, the integral to the exploration is always the word ‘imposing’. In a way we congratulate ourselves on being the heir of a magnanimous legacy. And that is why, there is hunger to dig earth layer by layer.  

With the word past, the word pride is subtly intertwined. And when societies rummage for their past, they actually try to delve for their pride that is buried under the dust of time. The major chunk of present is expended cogitating about the past that was immaculate and the past that was perfect.

Basking in the past provides soothing refuge to the tumultuous present. And many a times past has been inspiration to achieve something in present that is awe inspiring. Dwelling in the past is ok as long as the present is not being sacrificed. If present is strangulated perforce to make the past alive again, then a precarious situation emerges that engulfs the future as well.

So, we should always take care while submerging ourselves into hallucinating effects of past to give proper respect to our present and future. It is better to sprinkle experiences of past on the destiny of present than to expunge the opportunities of present for the nostalgic hubris of past.