The cupboard is a tall and narrow one, measuring 6 feet in height.  It has four shelves inside, and a pull-out drawer symmetrically placed in the middle. The piece was in display in a furniture shop, and the shop keeper enticed him to pick it up. At Rs 200, it seemed a great bargain for a wooden unit claimed to be made of teak.

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 nilavilakku, as it is commonly called in Kerala, or the vazhaipoo vilakku as it is known in Tamil, is common to both states. Nilam, meaning floor, is in reference to the floor-standing lamp while vazhaipoo likens the top of the lamp to the banana flower. The exact date and origin of Pradeep’s vilakku is unknown, but it can be traced back to beyond the 1930s in Madurai.

In the corner of Sandhya Venkat’s typical Madras home, a beautiful copper patina of burgundy and dark green catches the light pouring in through the courtyard. Although maintained exquisitely, turquoise and white spots reveal its proximity to the coast. The copper boiler originates from Madras and is likely from 1943.

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.