The moulds were given to my grandmother by my great grandmother. No one knows when they were made exactly but it was before 1905. They are made of neem wood and burnt soil and differ in size as per the makeup of the sweets made using them.,
This pot or Sipri, as it is known in Sindhi, belonged to my great-great-grandmother, Chaturbai. She was married somewhere in the 1890s and the metal pot was given to her on the occasion of her wedding.
This Kadhai dates back to sometime around 1951, when it was gifted to my grandmother at her wedding. There weren’t many gifts to begin with, but this kadhai – bought from Lucknow’s old Chowk market by my great-grandmother’s youngest sister – stood out from among the sarees and shirt fabric pieces.
An ikophot is a handheld meter made in the 1950’s by Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart, Germany. My grandfather Shyamal Kumar Majumdar probably procured this in the 1960s from Fancy Market, Kidderpore, Kolkata. It has a bubble glass at the front that takes in the light, which then drives the meter needle. It is covered by a little black lid which can be removed while using the device.
In the year of Madhubala’s Tarana, my great-grandfather bought an ornate wooden item for my great-grandmother from Madhubani. It was a Thekua mould made out of mango wood in the colour tan, lightweight and palm-size, the first gift purchased after their marriage.
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