There’s a term which describes feeling nostalgia for a time you never knew: anemoia. It can creep upon you while watching old films, listening to elder family members recant tales of their youth, or walking around ancient monuments and historical sites that have endured for centuries. A growing crop of content creators around the world, particularly in South Asia, are capturing this wistful, wonder-inducing feeling on their social media feeds. Running a spectrum of colours, from muted pastels to more intense, vibrant hues, Maroof Umar’s Instagram is a sensory overload in the best way. Images and videos of intricate carvings and motifs, old monuments, delicate, almost-ruined architectural elements, local delicacies and luxe interiors filled with textiles and tapestries appear accompanied by captions that detail lesser-known facts and little-documented histories. The page is a celebration of his hometown, Lucknow, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and its surroundings.
If Umar’s 304,000 (and counting) followers are anything to
