As the first few months of WW1 drew to a close, the British King George V’s 17-year old daughter, Princess Mary expressed a wish that ‘every sailor afloat and every soldier at the front’ should receive a Christmas present, including the Indian troops. The demand for these five-inch brass Christmas boxes was so high that many were kept by the soldiers as souvenirs after.
It is often the quietest, most commonplace objects that bear the loudest testimonies of their owners. And so it is with my grandfather. I have three of his wristwatches in my bedside drawer, the oldest one being a Titan Quartz with a gold dial with roman numerals and a small space at the bottom to indicate the date.
My mother, Kamla, got married in 1974, when she was sixteen years old, and at the time of parting, her mother, Rajkali Devi gave her daughter four things, one of which was this ornate silver sindoor dani in the shape of a kamla flower, the lotus.
These vintage dusting powder boxes have been in the family from around the 1940s when my maternal grandparents got married. They belonged to my grandmother, Bani Bhattacharya, who brought these from her maiden home in Maldah, West Bengal.
The most important years of my great-grandfather, Malik Zaman Mehdi Khan’s life were the 1920s, for it was during this time – on 1st January 1920 – that the title of “Khan Sahib” was conferred upon him by the British-Indian Government.
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