Apart from his daily exercise of reading the news, my grandfather would read his prayers from an Urdu Gurbani Gutka. A Gutka is a small sized book containing chosen hymns or shabads (sacred verses) from Sri Guru Granth Sahib and other Sikh scriptures. When the sun would set, he would wash his hands and feet and bring out the Urdu Gutka which was kept in a wooden cupboard in his room.
‘Let’s Put the Little Things Right’ is a book that was first published in 1973. It was written by Colonel Lionel Gregory, the founder of Comex – The Commonwealth Expedition. Comex was started in 1965 as an expedition from Britain to India in support of the multi-cultural ideals of the then called British Commonwealth. The book belongs to Promod Shanker (my father-in-law).
That’s the thing with tangible objects. They demand to make their presence felt. It’s impossible to ignore the texture of paper made brittle over time, the smell of it, the weight of history that’s contained within. More than the fact of the object, a book in this case, it suggests the owner’s state of mind.
I asked her what she had found. Through her smile, she whispered, ‘Sri Dasam Granth’ – the sacred scripture containing texts composed by the Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
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