I remember my grandmother, often reminiscing her past-- a vibrant
childhood and teenage years spent in the lush hinterlands of erstwhile
Bangladesh, ‘East Bengal’. The days of the Raj were still alive to the echoes
of stately bugles, marching soldiers and hurtling hooves – sounds which rented the
skies of a shackled nation. The wildfire of independence, however, raged on, igniting minds and hearts of millions across the country.
Grandma described her nestled existence against this
backdrop of turbulence.
Warm afternoons, in the company of siblings, or with aunts
busy knitting crochet or preparing sweetmeat. And, evenings spent reading
school books, under the mellow-glow of the lamp; its dark wicker smoking the
dainty glass-cover as well.
While women, grandma explained, were still largely restricted
to the indoor quarters -- their ‘voices’, surprisingly were ‘heard’, and in
certain cases seriously ‘pondered upon’! Animated discussions on women’s
education, the role of women in the household, or their participation in the
independence struggle – the women of the house had an ‘opinion’ on every issue.
But before these ideas were put forth before the men of the house (albeit
nervously), they were debated upon and analysed in the afternoons when the
women gathered to weave or knit!
As an adolescent, my supposed ‘modern’ bearing, fed on and
shaped by feminist ideologies, found grandma’s nostalgic descriptions regressive.
They seemed like a thing of the past, meant only to be heard as ‘grandma’s
anecdotes’! It was only during later years (probably when I was in college)
that I actually understood what she was trying to convey to her
granddaughter!
As a young girl, I was wont to believing that women once married
and engrossed in rearing children, wasted their talents, sacrificing their
lives for something not worth pursuing. So, while I did not think highly of my
grandmother’s crochet-weaving sessions in my teens, I began cherishing those
stories later, as an adult!
Today, those descriptions have a more significant and
symbolic import for me. While knitting, those women were, in a sense, weaving
their world of sovereign thoughts as well! Understanding and assimilating
different ideas and ideals from the outside world, and examining their value in
their lives. Some of these ideas posed a challenge to their status-quo, while
others showed them a new direction to walk on. Though relegated to the indoors,
they gave wings to their independent feelings, and voiced them amongst
themselves and later of course to the men in the house. How deeply progressive
those women were, I realise now—operating from the interiors of the household,
to effect a change for their gradual empowerment!
