I have faint memories of summer afternoons when an ittarwalla, a man selling aromatic oils and perfumes – ittar – would arrive from Awadh with a black briefcase. My parents would buy small amounts of a certain ittar from him and fill it in glass jars, which were then placed inside a wooden ittardan, a small rectangular box made to store perfume.
In our house, no one really would value the old, nor find it charming, but I immediately fell in love with this [tea set and watch]. My father still laughs at my obsession with these old things, but for me, it’s a little bit of preserving the lost past of Punjab and my family.
As we opened the grey trunk or the ‘sandook’ as my grandmother would call it, the metallic smell of ageing iron engulfed us. As we started scanning through her belongings, a small pouch lying in the corner caught my eye. What we found in it were treasures of her past that have traversed through our country, stood the test of time and remain in good shape- her treasured coin collection!
Nearly 86 years old now, she fondly recalls how Surmewalas would sit in a line outside the Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk, in those early years of Independent India. This brass surmedani was one of the first purchases my grandmother made there.
My grandfather recalls his mother, Snehalata Majumder to always be well dressed and adorned. Some of my family members even remember her being weighed against gold during her marriage. I never met my great-grandmother in person, but when I wore this bracelet, which once belonged to her, I was overwhelmed.
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