I have never been the arts-craftsy type of person and have always been envious of people who are dextrous enough to create a tangible work of art like a painting/drawing/sketch or crafts like handicrafts/embroidery/jewellery, etc. My mother though, has always dabbled into such creative arts like painting and hand-embroidery as a hobby and still pursues the same post retirement. My daughter loves to draw and prolifically turns out pencil sketches of her view of the world around her…and I cant help wondering if God skipped a generation while bestowing the artsy-craftsy creative gene to our family! 😊
Anyway,
my mother finds great satisfaction in her hand embroidery work and more so on her post retirement move to Dharmasthala. Anyone close friend or family
member visiting Shristi is sure to leave with one of amma’s exquisitely embroidered
pieces as a return gift to remember their Shristi visit. Drawing inspiration
from the surrounding nature, or traditional art designs like Warli, Kantha,
Kasoothi or Kutch, amma creates magic with her fingers through her intricate
needlework embroidery on vibrantly coloured fabrics, or left over blouse pieces
and weaves. She has even embarked on what she likes to call her “magnum opus” – an
embroidered creation of mathematical equations pieced together into a massive
bedspread representing almost four decades of her life dedicated to the
scholarship and teaching of mathematics at Jyothi Nivas College, Bangalore. As
Im writing this…I see amma’s focussed needlework creating a beautiful string of flowers on
a bright red poplin cloth!
Off
late, Aadya and her grandmother share a special connection through
their own forms of art. Aadya presented one of her drawings of a silhoutte of a tree as a gift for her “Sanna-ajji”
and Lo and Behold! her “Sanna-ajji” had replanted her tree into customised
pillow case!
Thanks
to amma, all four of us have personalised pillow cases with taglines specially embroidered
by amma…with “Acchu our Hero” for Abhay, “Aadya our Princess” for my daughter,
“Multitasker of Samruddhi” for my husband as he truly is, “Budding competent
Advocate” for me (while I thought I was already a competent advocate ….trust my
mom to give me a reality check! 😊) Her latest gift has been a hand-embroidered
patchwork bedspread with unique designs on each piece, from geometric shapes to
modified katha work, from traditional art layouts to colourful flower patterns,
with distinctive colour combinations, and beautifully sequenced strands of
threads of various shades….and all I can say is that amma’s embroidered tapestry of brightly coloured
flowers adorning our bed acts as a mood uplifter just like Wordsworth’s Daffodils!
So dedicating
this blogpost to my mother’s magical needle and thread work as we celebrated her 69th
birthday last weekend in a hybrid mode – while we physically joined her and my father at “Aroha’s
Eco Hill Resort” at Sakleshpur, and her best friends joined in through a zoom
call, with goodies being delivered to their doorstep so that they don’t miss out on
the cake! 😊
Following
the birthday weekend, we had an extended sojourn at our most favourite place in
the world my parents’ farm, “Shristi”, and just as we are about to drive back
to Bengaluru tomorrow, we had the grandmother-granddaughter read together one
of our all time favourites – “Grandma Bubba’s warm shawl” by
Rijuta Ghate, a publication by Jyotsna Prakashan, which brings out books that have
an old world charm to them! Wonderfully written
and illustrated, this book came highly recommended by our friends at the Funky Rainbow,
and has always been one of those books we fall back on for a warm and cosy read, and
it is rather surprising that I haven’t had the chance to blog about it…until
now when it feels perfect for the occasion!
Grandma Bubba
lived in the far away mountains and took good care of her flock of sheep. As
winter approached, grandma Bubba decided to knit herself a bright red shawl from
her sheep’s wool that she’d dyed red from beetroot pieces. Just then, her
grandson comes running to her asking for a bright red sweater and a bright red sweater was ready in no time! So every time grandma Bubba dyed her
wool green using spinach leaves, or purple with purple cabbage, or yellow through
turmeric, or blue turned by indigo, each of her family member comes in with a
request for a cap, or muffler or a pair gloves or a pair of socks and grandma
Bubba is only too happy to oblige! So the entire family is kept warm during
winter by grandma Bubba’s knitted creations and did grandma Bubba finally knit
herself a shawl ?.... Read on to find out how grandma Bubba’s love for her
family brought out the most colourful shawl that there ever was! A wonderful feel-good
story that echoed my mother’s sentiments as her embroidered creations adorn our
lives and fill our hearts with warmth and love!
