Museum of Material Memory

The brass tumbler measures around nine centimetres in height and has a design of peacocks around it. Time and age have discoloured it and it is dented at the bottom. Somewhere along the journeys it has taken, it acquired this dent.

February 2, 2025

Inheritance of strength: The story of a silver kada

Jewellery

A silver kada, the protagonist of this story, isn’t just an ornament, it’s a reward given for the strength and determination shown by my mother from my great grandmother. But my journey to uncover the kada’s story has been nothing short of an adventure — a puzzle waiting to be solved. Its history, wrapped in silence and secrecy, felt like uncharted territory.

January 5, 2025

The ink of memory: My grandfather’s journal entries

Documents

This is an excerpt from a journal entry written by my paternal grandfather, Tilak Raj Malhotra. The entries span from December 1949 to December 1982. Reading these feels like an intrusion to me, given their deeply personal nature and my lack of explicit permission. Yet, years ago, I resolved to document them on this Archive

December 22, 2024

A sewing machine as old as independent India

Heirlooms

My grandmother’s Singer is the model 15K, and searching its serial number EE415743 located on the front side of the machine bed, tells me that it was manufactured on December 24, 1947 – making it nearly as old as independent India herself!