These vintage dusting powder boxes have been in the family from around the 1940s when my maternal grandparents got married. They belonged to my grandmother, Bani Bhattacharya, who brought these from her maiden home in Maldah, West Bengal.
One such treasure is what my paternal grandfather, Rishabh Chandra Jain, made for me many years ago when I had just finished college. A small neckpiece that he fashioned from some loose beads and a piece of stone that no one was using and that simply lay in an insignificant box in the house for a long time.
The most important years of my great-grandfather, Malik Zaman Mehdi Khan’s life were the 1920s, for it was during this time – on 1st January 1920 – that the title of “Khan Sahib” was conferred upon him by the British-Indian Government.
Benda is a common term used for a maang tikka in central India and Uttar Pradesh. In 1961, Mrs Prakashwati Misra, my great-grandmother, travelled all the way to Lucknow from Raipur by road to get this made for her daughter-in-law.
In 1960, Shashi Kapur, a young woman in her early 20s placed an order with a leather worker in Mandalay for a handcrafted leather purse, along with a request to have her name engraved on the inner flap, complete with the title yet to be earned: Dr. Shashi Kapur.
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