This beautiful thing – I was told by aaji – was a crochet needle almost 90 years old! I could never have guessed it was a needle merely from the shape. I asked her where the hook was and she smiled and slid the oval silver mechanism to the top, pulling with it a hidden hook, extending its size to 12cm.
The envelope clutch purse measures 6 inches in width and 4 inches in height. It is covered in very fine crewel embroidery – a type of surface embroidery using wool and a wide variety of different embroidery stitches. The purse was handmade in Srinagar, Kashmir and gifted to my grandmother roughly ninety years ago.
This lace-crimper belonged to Dadi’s grandmother, Ganpatraiji who lived in the Taparia family home in Rajasthan. The origins of the lace-crimper are unknown, and the machine holds no markings of its maker. Dadi estimates that like most other Marwari households of the region, this machine would have been acquired for the family at the nearest large town, made by local blacksmiths in the early 1900’s or earlier.
Apart from several novelties received from family at their wedding, a widowed aunt gifted a vermilion case or shidoor kouto to Thamma. Its uniqueness characterised by the engraving in Bengali letters — ‘chiroshukhi’ or forever happy. The kouto would be more than 72 years old now, having been passed on from Thamma to my mother and then to me.
At the time of Independence, he chose to join the newly-created Pakistani Civil Service, and this decision effectively terminated his employment with the Indian Government. I remember him telling me that when Pakistan was created, the new Civil Service used these Indian postcards and ‘Pakistan’ was stamped on top of the image of King George VI.
Receive a new story from somewhere in the Indian subcontinent in your inbox every week!