Blog Post

Why do we need to see, touch and feel our heritage in old buildings, antique crafts and art forms ? | 28 Jun, 2015 | Author: RARE - destinations and experiences




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 ?