Ctrl+s isn’t enough. Here’s why you should be scrapbooking
If a picture is worth a thousand words, one with a note attached is worth a thousand more. Just a date scribbled hurriedly on a keepsake makes a memory so much more poignant. But it takes special effort to create such memory troves in an age of pixels.
Your mobile phone is just one of many places where memories go to die. How often do you really scroll to the bottom of your Instagram page? How often does Facebook remind you of a “memory from 7 years ago” that you’d clean forgotten about?
In a world of fleeting experiences, often marred by the taking of photographs that are rarely looked at again, a scrapbook acts like a cross between a photo album and a diary. It preserves images and bits of memorabilia — a museum pass, a seashell, a handwritten poem given as a gift. “Scrapbooks are in a way where your memories find a permanent home,” says Akansha Sahgal, 24, an MBA student from Delhi who makes customised ones as a hobby / side hustle.
Sahgal has been journaling and scrapbooking since she was a child. Four years ago she began making such scrapbooks to give as gifts to friends. She now makes them on request too, at prices ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 3,000.
In the first lockdown in 2020, Sahgal decided to document her own life too, to distract herself from the pandemic. “I wanted to gather happy memories,” she says. She’s preserved screenshots of virtual classes and of the best comments from her DIY crafts Youtube channel, which she has printed out to add to her scrapbook.
“Scrapbooking can be comforting in times of distress. The very act of being absorbed in a creative activity that requires focus, is calming for the brain,” says counselling psychologist Devanshi Jalan. “It allows one to live in the moment, which is important. It can also serve as a link to past memories of love and joy, giving one hope.”
For Alpna Kale, 41, a crafter from Goa, a memory scrapbook is emotion in tangible form. “It allows you to enjoy the same moment again and again, so it’s good for the heart,” she says.
Kale makes customised keepsake albums for events such as weddings, pregnancies, birthdays and anniversaries. A recent maternity memorabilia scrapbook contained an image of the pregnancy test, photos of the mother at different stages of pregnancy, ultrasound scans, letters to the unborn baby, a lock of hair, hospital ID bracelets, baby footprints and handprints.
Sometimes the client offers notes to go with the items; other times Kale leaves space for them to fill in the details in privacy. Her own personal keepsake collection includes letters from her husband, a piece of her son’s favourite toy as a toddler (a stuffed elephant) and certificates of merit from his school. “These books also serve as a marker of our emotional growth,” says Sahgal. “Scrapbooking helps us document our personal growth in a very unusual manner.”