Memories

Doraemon was one of my favourite comics when I was a kid. Well, Doraemon is still one of my favourites these days. There is a unofficial "last episode" where Nobita finally grew up. This was told to me by a colleague. I have not see it. Well, the suppressed it due to copyright stuffs.

One fine day, Nobita came back from the school after being scolded by his teacher for not completing his homework. As usual, his mood was not good due to constant bullying by Giant and Suneo. The only thing different on that day was that Doraemon had became "lifeless". Not knowing what to do, Nobita decided to jump into the time machine inside the drawer and consulted Doraemon's younger sister, Dorami.

The day had come. Dorami explained to Nobita that all the amber colour robotic cats have backup batteries located at the ears. Unfortunately, for Doraemon there was none. The ears were bitten off by a rat during the production stage. He will stop working right away when the main battery runs out.

There were two options. Replace the main battery and reset the stalled Doraemon. This would cause all the memories to be wiped off. The "resurrected" Doraemon would never know who Nobita was, and it would be just like a brand new toy. The other option was to have a competent robotic engineer who could map Doraemon memories and at the same time recharge the main battery. This was also not possible in the future world as no one had ever attempted that before.
Nobita cried and cried and cried... and he swore on that very day, he would study hard at school and someday, he would restore Doraemon. 10 years later, Nobita graduated with honours and became an expert in artifical intelligence. He actually hid Doraemon in his closet and even his childhood sweetheart wife didn't know about it. One day, he called Shizuka into the room and they "restarted" Doraemon.

"Nobita, I have been waiting for you all these while!!!", exclamined Doraemon.

By the way, is there any difference if the story line is changed in such a way that Doraemon lost his power gradually by the side of Nobita?

I watched Wall-E recently with my son. At the end, Eve repaired Wall-E and again, past memories are the most cherished things. It would be sad if Wall-E couldn't remember who Eve is.

As the saying goes, memories make the man.

Human being has a great mind that can hold loads of past memories. It is our past experience that mold the persons we are today. Let's say someone calls you on the phone and identifies himself as Golf Sierra. If you have no memories of that person, that name is actually pretty much meaningless. You might think, God damn it! Another telemarketer?

If you recognize the name, the voice, the favourite greetings... Viola !!! Hey Golf Sierra !!! How are you doing ??? It has been such a long long time since we last met !!! The conversation continues...

This "past memories" enable us to recall who taught us ride the bicycle, how to balance ourselves, how many times we fell down. For me, I will think of my dad. You know how to be grateful, and you also know what kind of mistakes to avoid so that you won't hurt yourselves again.

On the other hand, we also have the abilities to filter to even shut down the portions of memories that are traumatic and too painful to remember. We will talk about this Freudian defense mechanisim someday. We have to deal with it. Yeah, also the three stages of delayed grief as I shared with my friend, Juliet Delta Lima recently.

Anyway, as I used to share with friends, "there is no day better than today". Be thankful, cherish everyday. It is easier to say than to do. Practise, practise, practise. Live in the present, as in Vipassana.