Grandma's Anecdotes!

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!