The Collection - Nishka Kulkarni

My Eraser Collection - Nishka Kulkarni - Grade 8 - Pune, India

I often notice many people around me who are fond of collecting inanimate objects and trinkets, whether they be rare, precious stones, or glossy, multicolored candy wrappers, slicked back to perfection and neatly pressed away between the firm pages of a diary.

I can understand the passionate endeavor of “collecting.” When I was a young, bright eyed girl, I was a collector myself. I was completely obsessed and taken by what at the time seemed to be the most wondrous item ever invented in the world, with their rubbery stubby form and twisted figures.

The one and only…….. ERASER!!

I adored their brittle texture after I rubbed them off a page, I was fascinated by the crumbly dust that escaped them when I pressed them down with too much force. As an innocent 7 year old, I vividly recall my usually distracted gaze immediately focusing on the ‘Stationary Section’ of our local departmental store. Whenever I walked through the airy sliding doors with my dear, compliant mother. I often begged my parents to let me stay in the stationary aisle while they shopped for veggies that I was reluctant to eat, leaving me to run my stubby fingers over every perfect curve and edge of every single quirky eraser lined up on the shelves.

They were all much too pretty and expensive for me to have, but as I watched from afar, my eyes capturing every single shape and surface in my unfadeable memory, I knew that I did in fact, in my own way, still have an eraser collection. Even if it wasn’t physical.

As fate would have it, not having a physical, “real” collection worked in my favor - it allowed me not to succumb to the dark side of being a collector, the greed and longing of completing a set, the addiction and craving for more.. I’ve watched many people around me become victims of this complex, where they become more attached to objects than to people. I believe that not having a physical collection actually helped save me from the ‘thing complex’ - and for that, I am beyond grateful.

So now, even though I see people around me proudly showing off their slicked back candy wrappers and beautiful stone collections, I am perfectly content. Content with my own memories of erasers and trinkets, and most of all, the memories I share with the people around me - who impact my identity much more than inanimate objects or trinkets ever could.