In my possession is a manuscript that is now more than a century old, comprising of 300-350 handwritten pages. The name of the book is Sangeet Benode and can best be described as a treatise on Indian Classical Music. Written in Brajbhasha, khari-boli, and Sanskrit, it is a collection of over one hundred original bandishes or compositions in different ragas.

As a part of her trousseau, on her wedding – which incidentally took place during the India Pakistan war of 1971 – my maternal grandmother, Shashi Bhalla (neé Sood) carried a few objects from her mother’s trousseau from Bombay to Delhi. Two of these were later passed on to her daughter, my mother, Sapna Puri, and have now found their way to me. A surmedaani, and an ivory stick used to apply bindi.

The two boxes – one engraved with flowers and leaves, and the other, a cigarette holder – that my mother had bequeathed to me not only belonged to my maternal grandfather, but they were also crafted by him. My nana, Naresh Chandra Sharma used to work at a wood factory in his hometown of Sitapur, in Uttar Pradesh.

The dining table that sits in my family home was crafted in 1942. The table’s original owner, and the man who commissioned it, was my maternal great grandfather –– M. S. Ramaswamy Chettiar.

This brass cooking pot belonged to my maternal great-grandmother, Leela Chander. Referred to as a dekchi, It is a wide-mouthed pot, that sits obediently in my grandmother’s drawing room. But years ago it was used to cook biryani to serve up to 30 people.