The Past of Nostalgia

By- Ayushi Sharma

Edited by- Diksha Sharma

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Lately, there's this one stubborn thought that has been trailing on and off my mind: “Nostalgia will eat me up someday.” It’s that one feeling I’ve had a hell of a lot of bittersweet feelings for. I often liken “Nostalgia” to a hot cup of coffee- what follows those warm and soft foams of memories is a burning taste that keeps my fragile heart up at night.

So, on a leisure day, I decided to find the lingering past of “Nostalgia" itself. Turns out looking into the past of things is an intriguing activity that can keep one from infinitely doomscrolling on a lazy day. So, buckle up as we ride our train backwards into nostalgia during this fleeting time of a sentimental Sunday.

We humans are obsessed with the physicality of things in such a way that we turn what is meant to be abstract into material; this is a tragic truth. Would you believe me if I were to tell you that “Nostalgia” was actually said to be a physical disease, with researchers trying to find something called “Nostalgia bone” and using leeches to suck melancholy out of people? Sounds bizarre, but when has truth not been weird?

The term “Nostalgia" derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering elicited by the desire to return to one's place of origin. The term was coined by the Swiss physician Johannes Hofer (1688/1934) to describe the symptoms of Swiss mercenaries in the service of European monarchs. Hofer thought of “Nostalgia” as "a cerebral disease" and believed that it was caused by "the quite continuous vibration of animal spirits through those fibers of the middle brain in which impressed traces of ideas of the Fatherland still cling." Symptoms of this disease, Hofer proposed, included obsessive thinking of home, bouts of weeping, anxiety, palpitations, anorexia and insomnia. Things in the name of “Nostalgia” went so far that “Khue Reyen," a traditional milking song that ignited homesickness in Swiss soldiers, was banned. Dr. Jourdan Le Cointe, a French physician, believed that the most effective way to nip this dramatized homesickness in the bud was to instill fear in the victims. La Cointe cited a Russian general who, in 1733, warned his troops that the first of them to fall into a bout of nostalgia would be buried alive. American military doctor Thomas Calhoun thought nostalgia was a sign of weakness. Instead of consoling the soldiers, he prescribed a healthy dose of bullying; nostalgia was a shameful and embarrassing diagnosis, and public humiliation would knock some sense into the "sissies." I hate to say this, but it seems like even getting nostalgic is a privilege that some people didn’t have in the past.

This all just makes me ponder-- sometimes we say that olden times were better, but the question is, was it really so or is it just our feeble perception? Is it true that the coming generation is heading towards its own doom, or is it that we have escaped doom? Maybe both are true; we humans are stuck in this endless cycle of chaos, running from one tragedy to another. On the brighter side, or maybe darker after all, tragedy is the food to literature. Nostalgia has served its significance gracefully like that beautiful maiden in a veil; it has been a muse to various poets and filled the hearts of many readers with infatuation.

So, the next time you feel nostalgic, think of how it has also been a misunderstood protagonist in its own story once. Give it some love, for it deserves it too. Pick your pen and write about it. Let yourself drown in it, but remember, that this present of yours may also be “Nostalgia” tomorrow. So, take a sip of your coffee and laugh a little at your cartoon self, running from one “Nostalgia” to another “Nostalgia," like a small rat. Yes, that was a Tom and Jerry reference; oh, how I miss those days!

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