Super impressed with myself! Three days in a row. This morning I had thought I would write and get it done with sooner so as to go to bed early. However, did not happen, and it’s 10:20 pm already, and the washing machine has signaled its job is done, and its now mine to hang it up.
I’m not a fan of the dryer, primarily since I mostly use cottons, and some are colored with vegetable dyes. Besides, it’s not good for the environment, and definitely not kind to the fabrics.
This reminds me of Kalamkari, the real stuff that is made in Tamilnadu, uses vegetable dyes, and never needs ironing when hung out to dry neatly. Will fade in the sun, or even with simple exposure to UV rays, and its colors will run, unless they’re first soaked in salt water, or vinegar, when still new and definitely before the first wash. So I guess I’m grateful for being taught early on, thanks to my mother, to the vast treasure of handlooms and other artesian products, especially fabric, thanks to my dear mother.
In India, they’re easy to source and every family would or rather Should own at least a few pieces from a Co-optex, APCO, or Khadi (popularized by Mahatma Gandhi) stores. Co-optex has great sheets and pillow covers, and even Sarees.
In Delhi, there is a whole Road of State Emporiums (Baba Kharak Singh marg) selling wares of their respective states, mainly cottage industry products. My mother was a huge patron of these shops and back in the day, we purchased several small pieces of gold jewelry from KAIRALI, the Kerala Emporium, sandalwood stuff, and silks from KAVERI, the Karnataka emporium, Andhra silk saress from LEPAKSHI, the Andra Pradesh emporium, dresses from GURJARI, the Gujarat emporium, and several other items such as table linens, and curtains , comforters, etc. from the Assam, and Orissa emporiums, (they have great one of a kind woven curtains, and I still have some) and a few others, but these were my mother’s favorites. There was also the pricey Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath (old name, Queenway) which we only rarely went to.
Even after she left Delhi, my mother continued to buy from these shops whenever she visited Delhi, which was not often, because she preferred Bombay, and later, Mangalore as she lived with her son, and when my brother’s job took him to Hyderabad, it seemed Mummy had come home. She loved everything about the place, the people, the culture, the gardens where she could walk, and it had a warehouse size shop, called KALANJALI, which became her favorite go to place for all things! She wore clothes made of KALANJALI fabrics, and I got the benefit of that as well. In fact, the salesman in Kalanjali stores remembered me when I went on my second trip to Hyderabad years later. Here I also discovered Thanjavur paintings and indulged myself with a few. And stone and wood statues.
I still have silk curtains that I purchased in India, and Oriya silk from the Orissa emporium in Hyderabad. Mummy was lavish with her gifts, especially if they supported artisans. I later passed on this to my children, and they are even more hardcore culture vultures than me. This may be a trip down memory lane, but it’s also something that gave me tremendous joy then, and even now, I write with a huge smile on my face. Yes, definitely, definitely something to be grateful for!
Well, this tirade went on for far longer than I had anticipated, so I will keep the second part short. It’s not what I intended to write about today, but for the sake of brevity, I will say I’m grateful for a wonderful French bakery, where I’ve been buying my breads. Today I indulged myself and got a raspberry tartlet. I was blown away, it was really good. Coming from me, that means really, really, very good, because I don’t ever eat fruit tarts and other sugary baked goods that are piled high in the breakfast buffets of hotels in America. This was the gentlest whipped cream, which you could barely see, and with no/ nada/ none/ added sugars, so one could get the gentle and natural sweetness of the cream, and the mild tartness of the raspberries. Again, not a tartness fan, but this indulgent buy on a whim, was well worth it! I will try strawberry the next time.
So this is it. Two more things to be grateful for, and thankful God’s day is safely and happily done. Big gratitude for that too. The moon rests easy, barely visible now, it being amavasya today, or tomorrow? It will again start to grow in the coming days. Overcast skies hide the stars, which is a good reminder, that they are still there, we just don’t see them. And, no, they haven’t lost their shine, it just is God’s way. Always perfect.
Veenu
December 3rd, 2021.
11:41 pm
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