Everything looks great in Retrospection.

Do you ever get this feeling—when you wake up feeling like a version of yourself from many years ago? Maybe the version of you from when you were still a kid—those days that make you smile, when the world looked colorful to your eyes? Life in Muscat between 2008 and 2011 hits differently. Thursdays and Fridays were still the weekends. Al Jadeeda stores were everywhere, and the modest Safeer stood strong before a modernized Al Meera took over. Oman Avenues Mall had just begun construction, and Star Cinema was the go-to theatre for all Indians. The internet era still hadn’t arrived in my house. The old chunky Napro television set ran more advertisements than shows, and the Tata Sky set-top box gleamed beneath it—easily the most luxurious thing we owned. Even the Tata Sky remotes felt fancy. Every Wednesday afternoon, as I walked back home from school, I’d be buzzing. Not because of the weekend, but because something exciting might happen later that evening. I wouldn’t utter a word abo...