I must have been
about 14 years old when on the pretext of helping clean my mother’s kitchen, I willing
threw away a beautiful stone ‘aushadi mixer’ – a mortar and pestle, which according to my mother was over a 100
years old. The moment I dropped it from
our first floor terrace it was picked up by a nomad and when my mother came
home that evening she was quiet literally in tears. And in the true spirit of a cruel teenager I queried
‘what would you do with that old piece anyway’.
Life has a way of looping
back in a circle as in less than ten years after I joined the travel industry
and thanks to a sister-in-law with extremely discerning tastes I slowly but
surely began to value heritage and vintage. I have since then in my mind traced the
details of the rim of the small palm sized mortar many times over….. I clearly
remember the designs on this stone ware.
It had a scooped center, smoothened to a shine through years of use with edges
sculpted like the intricate icing on a wedding cake.
Recently walking through
the lanes of Churu, passing by one expansive Haveli after another admiring their
torans with their intricate patterns invariably reminded me of my mother’s
mortar and pestle. The expert guide walking with me explained each haveli, the art on its walls and
it’s missing owner, he was in grief at the decrepit
state of the buildings and agitated at the possibility of some of them being
razed to the ground to have an air-conditioned mall built in its place.
Now this is what I
would like my children to see, pages of history that in the quiet decor, design and doorways of these buildings,
native intelligence in the weave and weft of traditional looms and in the turn
and scoop of a stone, all resigned to memory that will lie the recesses of their
minds recalled when creativity is demanded of of their young minds. This will also help them
connect vision and art, math and architecture, science and music, art and
fabric, folk and fashion. In the vintage things we cherish and preserve, I believe
are details of design and intelligence which will fill essential gaps….history
must not be repeated yet it very often does and our answers lie in bringing
them all back in a endless loop to where we stand. A dance can stir our consciousness
while the poetry of an ancient art form does often remind us of some primal music
that seems to resonate in our soul.
And is it not the
soul we seek to refresh when we try our comfort food, watch a vintage movie, re-read
a favorite classic, ride a vintage car, drape a time softened silk saree….the answers
to dismal ennui, maybe ?