Conjuring memories out of thin air
Travel turns most people into storytellers. That’s because distance from our regular life gives us perspective. When we meet people from other cultures and see their way of living, our minds open to new possibilities. We realise that there are different definitions of a good life, different ways to be happy. We savour our new experiences and can’t wait to share them with friends and family back home.
And yet, when it’s time to go back, we don’t want to. We want to stay for another week or an extra weekend or linger for at least one more day.
Alas, we can’t. Go back we must. So, we do the only thing we can: take a heart full of memories and a phone full of photos with us as we go. And yes, souvenirs to act as reminders of our magical time away from home; something that will allow us to revisit our emotions every time we see or touch them.
In most countries, the souvenir pickings are slim, and largely banal. Fridge magnets compete with keyrings, tea towels, bottle openers, caps and cheap tee shirts for the traveller’s attention. Of course, some places offer souvenirs that are distinctly different, such as Arizona’s scorpion lollipops and Hawaii’s deep sea water. There’s also Indonesia’s Kopi Luwak, whose journey through the Asian Palm civet’s gastrointestinal tract apparently ups the delicious quotient of the coffee beans.
Thailand too has joined the poop party in recent years, having seen jumbo possibility in the defecated beans market. Here, the coffee is ‘processed’ by elephants, who are fed the beans alongside rice, bananas and fruit water. The beans reportedly emerge some 15-17 hours after the meal; at which time they are manually extracted, cleaned and processed, and ready to be handed over to any tourist willing to pay a pretty packet for the memento.
Unsurprisingly, not everybody chooses this route. One of my colleagues, in fact, shuns all souvenir shops and instead collects menus from every restaurant she eats at. Another brings back maps of the cities she visits. A friend who works with textiles buys a traditional scarf from every place she goes to. One day, she says, she will turn them into a patchwork quilt that will map all the lands she’s set foot in.
For my friends, these aren’t objects that they are collecting; they are chronicles—of places, people and adventures. All of which become more precious as their stories are told and retold to others.
I only wish I knew what story travellers are spinning about the newest collectable on the tourist circuit: a can of Lake Como air. With over 5.6 million people visiting the area last year and more expected in 2024, an Italian company has started bottling 400 ml of ‘100 per cent authentic Lake Como air’ and selling the cans at 9.90 Euro apiece.
The marketers claim the can is not a product but ‘a tangible memory that visitors can carry away in their heart’. Wonder which factor will drive more sales (and stories): the memory of the region’s natural beauty or the idea of breathing the same air as Lake Como’s most famous resident, George Clooney?
Shampa Dhar-Kamath
Delhi-based writer, editor and communication coach
shampadhar@gmail.com