{"id":1877,"date":"2018-09-25T18:27:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T12:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofmaterialmemory.com\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2018-09-25T22:38:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:08:26","slug":"the-little-webster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofmaterialmemory.com\/the-little-webster\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Webster"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY BHAVI MEHTA
\n<\/strong>Pune, Maharashtra, India<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

I was quite small, the first time I set my eyes upon this tiny dictionary. It was during our annual summer holidays, spent happily at my grandparents house in Jabalpur. My grandfather was very proper, especially when it came to his things. No one was allowed to touch his Godrej\u00a0cupboard\u00a0except my grandmother, who would let us peek inside once in a while. It was there, that I saw this small wooden case, resting between his\u00a0handkerchiefs.<\/p>\n

The dictionary belonged to my maternal grandfather who purchased it from a bookshop in Kashmir on his honeymoon in October, 1957. After much begging and coaxing, he finally showed me the dictionary one day. Its size is what made it so endearing to me. It smelled of incense and sandalwood. The pages were intact but the edges had given way. Although he had stopped using this one for sometime now, he still liked to keep it he said.\u00a0He told me that he loved reading the dictionary and I later found out that he owned three others besides this one. These were proper sized ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n