What however caught my particular attention was the reference made to a 5-page prayer handwritten by my forefather that was included in one of the volumes. I was able to make out the invocation at the start of the text which said Ya Rab, Mushkil Kusha (O Lord, Remover of Difficulties) which certainly sounded like a universal and enduring entreaty, and the right note on which to start this voyage of discovery.
During the 1947 Partition, Thaakuma had to make her journey across the border to Kolkata alone. While she couldn’t carry much, a few Chhaanch made this perilous journey with her. Though they may be a bit rough around the edges due to the passage of time, they are still in a pristine condition to leave their mark.
The magazine is an edition of a publication of a Bengali magazine ‘Robi’, translated from Bengali as ‘The Sun’ dated January 1930.
This clock became a witness for the life and times of the Malkani family when it was acquired by them in 1945. Its time-keeping began in Karachi, Sindh (present-day Pakistan) where my grandfather, Arjun Malkani, fifth among his ten siblings, lived.
In those days, included in every dowry was a sewing machine, and this belonged to my great-grandmother. The sewing machine is a Singer, with gold embossed work and dates back to the early 1940s. Portable in nature, a standard 14 inches in size, it has a wooden cover with my great-grandfather’s initials P.S Hora (Prem Singh Hora) painted on it.
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