My grandfather, Ramnik Lekhi’s Yashica 635 and Paillard-Bolex H16 cameras, which he bought during his time with CBS news, are now with me. It is with these cameras that he covered major events like the 1961 Liberation of Goa, the war with China in 1962, and Pakistan in 1965. He eventually lost his life in 1970 while covering the war in Cambodia at the young age of 40.
I know my grandfather, Mahboob, only through remnants, but perhaps remnants are not small things. A ring, a letter, a postcard, a photograph: each carries a version of him, and each is made more alive by the stories my grandmother, his Dilruba has attached to it.
Death transforms ordinary objects into carriers of memory. After the passing of my grandparents, their photographs, clothes, watches, suitcases, and handwritten notes became more than just belongings, they became emotional markers of time.
The Konkani Sambharḍe (or Sāmarḍe) is the regional wooden spice container of the western coast of India. It is carved from a single block of wood, with the compartments hollowed out one by one. The craftsmanship isn’t decorative; it’s structural. The wood has lasted for decades. The beauty of the box is that it breathes – it lets the spices stay dry without trapping moisture inside.
Receive a new story from somewhere in the Indian subcontinent in your inbox every week!