‘Oh it looks so classy! It has a vintage vibe. It looks so retro.’ I cried in joy when I first saw the streets of Jodhpur. It got recorded in a video. I came back and was going through all the videos and pictures, I heard this. I thought to myself that why is it that everything old is classy, you know? Why does everything old have a class? Why don’t we have it now? Whether it's music, literature or fashion. I got my answer a few days back. Though the first blog which was going to get live was about something else. (This is my explanation for getting late :p)
The first two newsletters got me very overwhelmed and they fall in the same circle as this blog. So I kind of got convinced that this should be my first one.

Let’s imagine ourselves after some years. Say 10. Would you remember all the Instagram Trends which are going on? Maybe. But I bet that it won't give us as big of a smile as listening to Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai, Shaam Savere Teri Yaadein Aati Hain, or Aapki Kashish will give. Why? No bulllshit like we were teenagers and shit. We will be 35 and will still like it because IT IS GOOD. IT WAS GOOD. It is so much better than today’s shit.

‘Where is the logic, Surbhie?’
‘This isn’t enough logic?’
‘Well!’

Classic are the things that have lasted.

Here it is. I said it. Note it. Screenshot. Record. Whatever. It is the truth.

In high school, the line between "you geek, you like old stuff?" and "oh man, those are classics!" was a fine line.
I like old books. I get excited when I run into a book that is 20-30 years old. Because we can imagine someone reading it - some little kid who is now old, some adult who is now likely no more... and sometimes you see their name in pencil. In beautiful writing (people knew how to write their names back then, didn't they? Perfectly legible, calm flow in the script and still raw and not perfect for Instagram...). I also like the view into the world that was deemed normal around the time of that book.

I like old "things", such as things made of wood. Because back then they needed someone with considerable skill to make them. The material is real wood. Not wood shavings held together by glue. Or with a thin veneer that will bubble. And if it ever becomes really damaged, you can refinish it.

I also like that it is the legacy of whoever made it. They are probably old, or no more. Yet what I hold took some of their time, some of their care, and some of their love. It's as close to a conversation as we are having. And I like that.
I'm not sure that appreciating old stuff has to do with intelligence. Though perhaps it does have to do, at times with not caring very much about what is currently trendy or fashionable.
Read it again. Scarcity tends to make us value things even more which is why we value old music much more than we used to value even 5 years ago. Scarcity of good music has made us like this. By the way, did you listen to Chura ke dil mera (new one) and Nadiyon Par?
To use very British terminology I think we have moved away from
Songs of Praise and towards Antiques Roadshow.
There are lots of 'new things'. You can check last year’s music or check Instagram Reels for that matter. And when you check next year, you will see a bunch of 'new' songs - and the vast majority of last year's 'new' songs are gone. Very few new things last. Marketers like 'new' because it looks fresh and up to date. So they make many 'new' things that are made as cheaply as possible.
The emphasis is on the sizzle, not the steak, on the 'newness' not the substance.
Adding to this, is the fact the old stuff has lasted for so long because so many people over the years really found it interesting.
The crap gets forgotten and the cream of the crop stays.
Regarding old clothes, do you remember the fabric of the classic Levi's jeans? That was a piece of clothing to last. Look at jeans made today - a pair will hardly last you past three years. Most clothes 40 years back were made to last at least a decade.
Or maybe it's all just a subconscious no to consumerism and pomp.

Let me just break all the notions at the end of this blog.

I don't think it's because it's old. I think it's because some people crave very good quality music, literature, etc from older things. We had KK, dude. This is appealing to some people. Some people are also simply more aware of their surroundings and tend to have a larger foundation of knowledge. They simply crave novel experiences and much of the artwork, music, literature, etc that comes from the past is of very high caliber.
It is not true that we like old stuff. We like good stuff. There is some good stuff now as well, but not much of it. If you look back, the elites were dictating the canons of beauty. The elites were buying cars. The elites were raising beautiful palaces and houses. The elites were sponsoring composers and painters. Today, the world has become ‘popular’. This means that the average Ramesh is dictating what the car should look like or what the film should be like. This is not the world for us, sorry. We prefer to escape to that old world, the world in which ambition to become the elite was something good and desirable. And ‘elite’ does not necessarily equal ‘money’. The world in which Leh jana was still a big thing and people would not make it common for us by going there just for the sake of ‘content’!

Because for many of us, Rishikesh is still the most serene place.
As is the old music of Himesh.
As are the vocals of KK and Kunal Ganjawala.
As are the novels of Amrita Pritam and Sahir.
As is the wisdom and drama to be found in Satyajit Ray’s and Mira Nair’s.
And because you can't possibly have a true appreciation of the modern without a deep understanding of its past.