I interviewed my parents
So I have been planning to do this for a long time and I was finally able to do it. It all started on reading a twitter thread from an Anon account on twitter talking about on how Life is short and also from the MFM podcast where Shaan told he wanted to interview and gave example of questions ( Not sure which episode ) these two lead my to me finally taking an interview of my parents.
I will talk more about on how Short life is in a different post.
Why even do one?
Let me start with a question. do you remember your grandfather? do you remember his father? or your great grand mother? wouldn't you want to know more about them? You are the direct descendent of them and a % of your genes still have your great grandparents and their parents and so on in them. I grew up with not seeing my grandfathers from both of my parents side but have been fortunate enough to meet both of my grandmothers and my great grand mother from my mothers side too. As time ages we have to acknowledge that our parents are aging too and at some point of time they will also have a more peaceful sleep like any other human being who have lived in the past. So by interviewing them I can store a part of them and cherish those memories whenever possible, even show it to my future wife, kids, grand kids and great grand kids. ;) Even rewatch the video with my parents again after some years.
Why Videos?
I think videos suit better for this task than photos. One of the things I wished growing up was that I would have loved to see more of my childhood days in pictures or videos. Those are precious memories which I would love to live them once again even though even if it just in my mind, I only remember vague memories of my childhood and preteen era. With the current advancement in Smart phones taking a picture and video is very easy to do. Unlike pictures videos record audio and visuals of the person which can show emotions and minute details. I am not dunking photos here as they showcase the stillness and capture the moment in that second which has a different touch but videos was my go to document.
Questions.
So it was time to prepare for the Interview. After I decided to take the interview I told my parents that I would be interviewing them individually and will ask them a set of questions. My mum said she will reply the answers on the spot but I sent the questions to my dad beforehand which he didn't even read so he answered them on the spot as well. So divided all the questions to main topics which were
- Early life and childhood
- Family history
- Teenage years
- Career and Adult life
- Marriage and Family
- Personal values and beliefs
- Life experience
- Reflection and Wisdom
- Family dynamics
- Specific memories
- Father/Mother - Son relationship
- Fun questions
- Future & Dreams
These were the main topics. I will also list a few questions overall so that you get a gist of what kind of questions I asked my parents.
- What are your earliest memories?
- What were your parents like?
- Where did our ancestors come from?
- What was dating like in your time?
- What was your first job?
- How did you meet Amma?
- What was it like when you became a father?
- What makes you happy?
- What are you most proud of in life?
- How has our relationship evolved over the years?
- What funny things did I say/do when I was a child?
- What was your reaction when I was born?
The above were just the few questions which I asked my dad, had a slightly different questions for Amma. You can create your own set of questions it is not limited to just the above. Heck, even ask Chatgpt to generate questions to ask. It might even give you some questions which you might not even thought about it in a different angle.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely! 100% worth it. Try to convince your parents. It is worth it. You might find some info which you might not have know before. I will share mine.
My parents did love marriage and they had to move out of their home.(This is a big story too which I would need to write a different post later) They decided to go to Delhi where my fathers relatives were there. I knew this already but in the interview I got to know a few more things like my parents boarded the unreserved compartment which was at the end of the train and my dad's friends who helped them during this flee from home, filled the back side of the Train apartment (* not sure you have seen the X mark on the backside of the a train compartment *) with sentences like happy married life with my parents name on the Backside of the train. Haha I truly would have loved to see the pictures. The second unknown story was that during that time the train used to stop at multiple stations and my mum got down in one of the station and boarded a different compartment. Mind you my mum was 16 when this happened but luckily there was a helpful Military person who helped my mum and dad where he personally accompanied them as my parents have ever even been to delhi and made sure that my parents reached my aunts house in Delhi. He even wrote letters to my parents wishing them happy new year from his Military posting, I saw the letter too which is still in our home.
One of the cute answers from my Amma was for the question What funny things did I say/do when I was a child? So during my childhood I participated in a dressing competition competing as a Shakthi man. ( Behold the Shakthiman below )
My mum said after participating and walking to our home I was holding the star thing which Shakthiman used to do too on my right hand finger all the way to home brimming with a happy face with those pinkish cheeks. She said I was so cute and was very funny as everyone on the street was looking at me too and I was like Shakthiman!! and showing my right index finger pointing up. Haha! Truth to be told I don't recall doing any of the above but when she told this I literally lived the moment by thinking on How I would have done or acted. Gosh! I was the superhero of the day! So yes! It was a totally worth it for me! I recommend everyone to interview their parents and have fun. Learn more about your parents.
What I did on the interview:
I had my DJI action camera so I used that to record, you can also use your Phone to record just have a small tripod. First I took my parents to a restaurant and started recording as we were talking and after having lunch for my mum we returned back to home to finish the interview. For my dad we went to a nearby temple and finished the interview. Ask them where they would be comfortable and record there temple, home, public places with not much crowd, their favourite spots, etc.. So each interview lasted around 3 hours each. Kind of like a film. hehe. After recording I saved in my cloud drive safely. Planning to watch this in the future with my family or even re-watch it with my parents again. :)
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