Nostalgia...

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Nostalgia has been one of my favourite words of English language. Not just because it contains in itself a powerful emotion which seems to accord the "Past" its rightful importance over the  much hyped "Present" and the much feared "Future", but also because of the sheer formation of the word itself. The last syllable is open ended which continues into eternity and rightly so, as someday it would indeed engulf all that is present and will be future.
It did not break into my vocabulary until very recently (may be as recently as 8 years ago) and for some reason Nostalgia always sticks out in my mind with one other word- Nepotism. May be because they are usually in the same section of the vocabulary lists. Whereas Nepotism is overtly negative and may seem to be unrelated to Nostalgia I have always felt the two words to be very closely related. And together they remind me of human weaknesses. No matter how strong someone pretends to be, everyone at some point in time, in moments of great failure and great successes becomes nostalgic. Nostalgic for the past which was so simple, limited, predictable and familiar. Same goes for Nepotism. No matter how much we want to be fair and objective at some point in our life or other we do succumb to the temptation of helping and favouring our near and dear ones. May be one reason why Nostalgia and Nepotism seem related to me is that they both concern family and although they colour our emotions about family in completely contrast shades for me they are the truth of our existence, a reminder of our limitations, of our being human.

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