The Blue Keychain

On a cold winter afternoon in Delhi, I am with two of my closest friends and all three of our mothers. We are in Dilli Haat, a place known for its food, souvenirs and trinkets. Of course, the three five-year-olds insisted on getting something from there. I was in awe of the person writing names on a tiny grain of rice the moment I saw him. After a lot of insistence, my mother relented and agreed. I ran to the man and immediately started looking at all the keychain options he had. With so many designs and colours to pick from, I could not pick the wrong keychain. After ten minutes of fishing around the basket of keychains, I finally saw it, the perfect one. A deep blue guitar.

Since I was a child, I have always loved music, I can not sing or play any instruments per se but my love for the art remains. My parents, too, are extremely fond of music and I have been a dancer for as long as I can remember, which definitely added to my love for music. I did try learning how to play the guitar at one point but lost touch with it. My keychain, though, still hangs with my room keys. 


I have associated people and emotions with colours subconsciously for a long time. And blue is a colour that I associate with constance. Things and people change, life can not be permanent, but some things are constant in one's life. Blue holds the comfort of constance and nostalgia for me. 


I tend to keep things that I deeply adore safe and avoid using them in my daily life. The keychain was one of them until I forgot where it was and almost lost it. Luckily, though, my mother and I managed to find it. This made me realise that keeping things hidden and 'safe' gives me fewer opportunities to cherish them and make memories with them. Ever since, I have used the keychain, be it on my favourite bag in school or my keys right now in college. 


It signifies something I love and enjoy, in my favourite colour and is with me as I create more memories. Having had it for almost 14 years now, I feel like it is something from my childhood that is in perfect condition and will witness me grow more as an individual. It reminds me of my friends who were there when I first bought it, and it is one of the physical objects that symbolises our bond now that we are in different parts of the world. 


The keychain may not have directly impacted my personality, but it signifies and represents things, people and memories that made me who I am today. It was the only thing that came to my mind as soon as I read the details of the assignment, and it made me revisit the memories made since I got it. 


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