We are nothing more than the memories we make. Is that why we live recklessly at times but cautiously for the most? Everywhere you look tools whereby we can forget surround us. Be it film, music, food, porn or prayer, the goal seems to be to numb, switch off, escape, forget. But on a recent recce to Coonoor & Ooty for my next film Love Affair, nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks. Fifteen long years after my last visit here, I chose not to field my ghosts and remembered instead.

Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, Sadak, Prem Deewane...the list goes on. The heady scent of eucalyptus, miles and miles of impossibly blue skies, discovering one’s worth through work, pushing boundaries, learning, revelling in friendships and falling in love. Breaking one’s heart. Picking up stray fragments of your heart and placing them at the feet of a new dawn.