Posting throwback clicks on social media has become a huge trend since the beginning of the lockdown. From vacation pictures to Puja memories, young celebs, professionals and teenagers are now uploading old photographs more than the new ones. t2 tries to gauge the mood…

Looking Back

Riddhi Sen loves to be engaged in shooting and acting on stage. He also likes to travel and hold get-togethers with friends. He missed all those badly during the lockdown. So he looked back at the old photographs and posted a few of them on social media. “The trend actually began years ago when Facebook started showing memories and I also often shared Facebook memories. However, people started posting a lot of throwbacks during the lockdown as they couldn’t go out of their homes for a very long time and they began to retrospect. I was majorly missing the fact that travelling won’t be the same again. So I posted a few old travel pictures,” said the young actor.

Riddhi shared a lot of stage photos during the pandemic. “I was missing the live performances of our Swapnasandhani theatre group. So I posted a lot of throwbacks on Facebook,” said the national award-winning actor. He also shared a couple of memories on Facebook that were very close to his heart. “One of them was Naseeruddin Shah’s visit to our house in May last year. He was shooting with my father at that time and he came to our place on my birthday. The other memory is of the vacation in London with my parents. London has always been my favourite place,” said Riddhi.

For Surangana Bandyopadhyay, throwbacks work like a tool of self-realisation and it also offers her hope of getting back the good old days. “I always enjoy looking back at special memories. During the lockdown when I looked back at the events that happened last year, I realised how privileged I am compared to many other people and I also became hopeful that all the good things would happen again next year,” said the actress.

Surangana remembered a couple of throwbacks that really touched her heart. “When the lockdown began, I was wondering about the time a year or a couple of years ago. Our plays Taray Taray and Ekla Cholo Re were staged at that time in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Around Puja, the memories of our trip to Seattle and San Francisco came to my mind. Riddhi and I were there for a show last year and it was a very special trip for me. Besides these, I always love the throwbacks that remind me of my hangouts with Ridhhi and our friend Rajarshi Nag. They are the most enriching experiences,” said Surangana.

Although Rwitobroto Mukherjee doesn’t like spending time on social media, the actor too loves to look at the throwbacks and relive the memories associated with it. “Recently I posted one of my very old photographs from when I was just a few months old. It was a very special picture with my grandmother. I was very close to her. My father found it in an old album and made it his cover photo on Facebook. Then I took it from him and posted it,” said Rwitobroto.

Srestha Ghosh (second from left) with co-judges at TTIS Choto Chokhe Boro Pujo 2019 Sourced by the correspondent

Reliving best Puja days

A trip to her grandparents’ house in Calcutta during Durga Puja is a must for Hyderabad-based techie Arpayeta Singh. Pandal hopping with friends and relatives, clicking pictures and selfies at all the big puja pandals from north to south and chomping on street food are what the 24-year-old waits for the whole year. But it was a completely different Puja this year. “The pandemic restricted me to a place far away from home, and I found solace in looking through the selfies and pictures I clicked in previous years. Posting these pictures on social media satisfied a melancholic nostalgia deep within me. Old photos, it seemed, had the power to succour. Enclosed within the four walls of my flat, posting old photos and videos seemed to keep me connected to the life I had before everything in the country came to a standstill,” said Arpayeta.

Srestha Ghosh had the best Durga Puja experience last year as the Class X student of Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School took part in TTIS Choto Chokhe Boro Pujo where she donned the judge’s hat for the first time and had a blast with 40 other school students. She also enjoyed her barir Pujo thoroughly. “This year is a bit blur to me, but I can remember every moment of last year’s Puja vividly! Thanks to the pictures, stored and sorted, this unbearably depressing time turned out to be bearable. The throwback clicks felt so refreshing, the joyous fragrance of nostalgia took me back to the momentous memories and emotions of last year which I was too busy to look back at,” said Srestha.

Indrakshi Chatterjee in Sikkim, a year ago Sourced by the correspondent

Vacay vibes

Exactly a year ago, Indrakshi Chatterjee was enjoying the scenic beauty of north Sikkim at around 18,000ft above sea level, bearing the chilly winds at -18 degrees Celsius temperature. Now the Class XII student of St Joseph and Mary’s School badly misses travelling, meeting new people and trying local food at various places. “Life has become dull and gloomy in this pandemic situation. We are all tired of seeing people and working through rectangular screens. So all we can do is cherish the memories and the moments we spent in previous years by posting the old photographs on social media,” said Indrakshi.

Suha Roy (second from left) with friends on Sashthi last year Sourced by the correspondent

Positivity

Flipping through pages of childhood photo albums is what Suha Roy started her lockdown with. “It was definitely a good way to escape from the dystopia, fear, anxiety and stress the world was going through. ‘Coronostalgia’ is something that everyone is going through at this moment. Confined to our homes, our brains are devoid of incidents to create memories. Thus the only option left is reliving good old days through photographs filled with faces and places which can help us buffer out negative emotions and stay positive in this challenging situation,” said the Class XII student of Sushila Birla Girls’ School.

Ishika Samajdar, a first-year English honours student at Shri Shikshayatan College, feels the old photographs give people the motivation to go on as the clicks make them remember all the good times they had had. “At a time when some of us are far away from our loved ones, looking at the old pictures makes us feel as though they are close to us somehow,” said Ishika.

No amount of video calls can ever measure up to addas with friends over tea and snacks. “Being locked up for months became monotonous and mentally exhausting. Soon we started searching pictures of all those good times left behind as taking a trip down memory lane seemed to be the best option in times like these. It somehow kept us sane,” said Aditi Dey Roy, a first-year student of economics honours at Amity University, New Town.

Ishika Samajdar clicked the view of Bay of Bengal from a Puri Hotel in December 2019. Sourced by the correspondent

Ashmita Dhar, a Class XII student of Mahavir Institute of Education and Research, also feels the same. “I love looking at old pictures and recount the special events and feelings attached with them. Throwback clicks give me the opportunity to enjoy and share the happiness all over again. I’ve always been a person who loves cherishing the good times left behind. I have the oldest of photos kept safely as my treasure. The pandemic made me share throwback pictures, from that of school events to family gatherings, from outing with friends to IPL matches at the Eden Gardens. What delights me is the reaction I get after sharing the throwback pictures. I discuss about the memorable days and everybody seems to be glad to have revived the memories afresh.”

Surangana with Riddhi in Seattle around Puja last year. Sourced by the correspondent

Photographers’ take

The basic purpose of photography has always been to revisit or throwback into memories. “During the lockdown, lack of activities must have accelerated the memory bursts, which in turn created a mass trend of sharing throwback images. It’s actually good considering the fact that people can compare their lifestyle from past with present. Also, photographers are analysing the development of their work in the past years,” said Nabhonil Basu, a photographer.

At a time when most of the photographers too are confined to the boundaries of their home, they have no other option but to share their old works to make their presence felt. This is a blessing in disguise for some young photographers. “I am incredibly lucky that I got to see and appreciate some amazing works by photographers all around the globe thanks to this trend, and I dearly wish this practice remains alive. Being a young photographer, I utilised this opportunity to broaden my knowledge in this discipline,” said Pubarun Basu, a second-year English honours student of The Bhawanipur Education Society College.