K is for KNICK- KNACK:
Please enlarge it for a larger view!
The picture
above represents a rectangular piece of cloth, which can be characterized as no
more than a knick-knack. Yet it is not simply that. In fact, it tells a little bit about a young girl. It
was a part of her memorabilia. That young girl has now stepped into her
seventies and this insignificant looking cloth symbolizes a slice of her history.
I think I’s in the final year of primary
school. In those days, there used to be a sewing period for girls and drawing
for boys. I still remember that we girls were asked to knit a baby dress. It
was a difficult task and dear mother, busy though she was in looking after my
younger siblings, helped in this venture. In fact, she did the difficult parts.
Another requirement was to make a small centerpiece to be done with a special stitch on the edges and a design in the middle, after pulling out threads, .
The other
day when I’s rearranging the stack of linen in the cupboard, I saw this tucked
inside the pile virtually invisible. I found it of course and examined it nostalgically.
For a moment, I was transformed into that little girl slogging to pull tiny
strands of thread. I marveled how meticulously the threads must have been
pulled to make the design in the middle. The cloth is so thin and pulling tiny
strands must have been a mammoth task. However, I could do it. The neat stitch
work makes me feel as if it is a work of art accomplished by me at a time that does not remotely resemble the modern age.
So much has happened in my life since, yet I
regard it as a precious souvenir from a bygone era, when girls were squarely
ingenuous, very stupid and extremely bashful and innocent.
I’m
certainly gifting it to my granddaughter whenever I meet her in the coming days.
Friends,welcome here as always!
