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.,
But the past came most alive whenever these coins were taken out. They were charged with stories that may not have emerged otherwise – each coin held a different tale, a different style of narration, the varied emotions giving those aged metal pieces a meaning.
Dr. Ramesh Chandra De, my maternal great-grandfather, was an army doctor in the First World War. What I gather from family members is that he was first posted in the Khirgi-Waziristan division for traineeship, and then sent to France for the rest of the War in the capacity of a surgeon. Sudhir Chandra De, my maternal grandfather, chose to follow in his father footsteps and at the age of 21 in the year 1940, found himself appointed as the official physician at the notorious Andaman Cellular Jail.
A testament to time and tradition, this Dussehra register, is a handwritten chronicle that has been maintained by my paternal family since 1972. The register records the names of all family members present at that time and significant milestones and events that have taken place.
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.
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