Conventional wisdom has it that one must forget the past, ignore the future and live in the present. This is considered as a surefire way of attaining happiness. But I have arrived at a different set of conclusions.

The past is irreversible but it would be premature to conclude that it counts very little and that it must be safely ignored and forgotten. Consciousness of the past is indispensable, for the present is meaningful only in relation to the past. Shunning the past and trying to live entirely in the present would not only be foolish, but foolhardy too.

The past is indispensable for it is at the soul of the present. Minus the past, we would be uprooted, as good as living in wilderness. In the twenty-first century, every individual, society, community and nation is searching for its individual identity. But our identity can only be defined with relation to the past. Otherwise, the very notion of identity would be meaningless. It is not for nothing that scholars attach such importance to the study of history. It is sad that the common man has become increasingly indifferent to this ever-important subject, dismissing it as the vocation of the mediocre — those who can cram dates and events endlessly. The past serves as a valuable guide and a good friend to the present. Before embarking on any course of action, it is important to seek guidance from the past. It is important not to repeat the kind of mistakes that have been made in the past. Anyone who is unwilling to learn from the past is destined to fail.

Our politicians committed countless blunders in the past, grossly ignoring the very people they represented. But the people, who showed total ignorance of the lessons that should have been learnt from the past, are equally to be blamed. Our young and fragile democracy became its first casualty. The past and the present are intertwined and either can be ignored only at one’s own peril.

The Spanish-born American philosopher and writer George Santayana seems to speak from experience: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. It is not all about repeating past mistakes though, but being aware of all the past events and cherishing each and every valuable moment that has been lived.