Museum of Material Memory

A cookbook that dates back to the year 1986 is filled with my maternal grandmother’s handwritten recipes. This diary was her companion throughout her life, but after she died in 2023, it became dearer to my mother. Now, in the age of ordering in and eating out, it has found new relevance amongst my mother and her sisters

October 12, 2025

The brass box from Sushi’s childhood

Heirlooms / Household

The box was gifted to 10 year old Sushi by my grandfather Digambar Singh Karki in 1955. The small box made of brass or peetal has a latch, circular lid and a curved handle.

October 5, 2025

The tunic that bridges time and distance

Textiles

It is a different feeling to be holding this piece of fabric in my hand, almost like a portal allowing me to feel my grandfather’s presence. I had been carrying a piece of my land without knowing it, and seeing this object as a vessel – one that connects the immediate to the vast – has transformed my understanding of my ethnic identity.

September 22, 2025

Biji’s Vintage Box: A Walk Through Memory Lane

Household

In 1972, a family friend gifted this Nutrine box to my maternal uncle for his birthday, and originally it was filled with toffees. As it emptied, like the fate of most chocolate or biscuit tins in South Asian families, my grandmother filled it with sewing accessories – spools of thread brought by my great-grandfather from Singapore many years earlier in 1953.