'Rakshabandhan' - Forging Bonds Forever

As children we always waited for this festival to arrive, as it brought with it, visits to the market, refrigerators full of ‘mithais’, holiday/holidays (an added bonus, if it fell on a Saturday or a Monday) and meeting so many relatives on a single day. All year long none of us ( we three sisters) felt the need to have a brother. But on this day we wondered who we tie this beautiful thread ‘called Rakhi’ to ??!!

Since childhood, the person who came to our rescue on this day was our father. Every 'Rakhi Morning' we would get ready and he would hold his hand out so we could tie him the Rakhis our aunt's had sent for him and also the ones that were from our side for 'a brother'. On the flip side, celebrating this beautiful day and the bond it represents was not restricted to us having a brother, because we never had one. And why not? After all, our father was the one who protected us all year long. Isn’t why this day is celebrated? 

On a parallel platform, we also have four sworn brothers, who have been our brothers since we were babies. They were our neighbors. No sister for them. No brother for us. Hence the start of a relationship between them and us which completes about 25 years this Rakhi. We have hardly been in the same city but the first Rakhis that they tie is ours, even before their own cousins’. This is the bond that I cherish. Not a bond of blood, but the bond of Love.

With Vrinda’s birth, she became the first baby girl in my maternal family. My sisters already had one boy each. She brought with her a new chapter of ‘Rakshabandhan’, in the next generation. This is her 2nd Rakhi and I have already sent out her letters and Rakhis to all her cousins. What a beautiful feeling of contentment I derive from this.

Here is a basic draft of a letter from her to her brothers :-)

Dear Bhaiya,

Hope you are doing well and enjoying. I am sending Rakhi for you. Please tie it on the day Rakhi is celebrated.Hope you will like it and enjoy wearing it.
 
Please convey my regards to all elders and love to all young ones.

Your Little Sister
Vrinda a.k.a. Kuhu

Today she is too young to understand the meaning of this festival, these bonds that it forges, but as she will grow up, she will soon realize its worth and hopefully find immense pleasure in sending them out to her brothers.

 

This whole process of buying Rakhis , making the parcels and being excited about how her brothers will feel when they tie them on their wrist, really makes me happy and fulfilled as a mother.

The ritual that we followed as children, I am going to start the same for her from this Rakhi. Vrinda will be tying Rakhi to her papa from this year, professing the protection that she seeks from him as a daughter as well as a baby sister :-)

But more than anything else, I would want her to believe in the strength of relations, relations that she seek to build over time with her brothers. Tying a Rakhi is only symbolic, what matters is that she forges such strong bonds with them that go a long way in their lives for all times to come!

Threads of love !

Threads have a special place in our lives.May it be the button sewing process that our grand mothers undertook for our grandfathers or the usage of thread by our mothers for tying 'bittergaurd/karelas' while cooking a sumptuous meal for us. In one place it has existed in the form of 'Mouli' that has been adorning our hands during all Pujas and festive rituals and on the other hand been there as 'Rakhis' symbolizing that strong bond between brothers and sisters. As children we have also played with ropes in 'Tug of War' and seen immense dedication of our domestic helps as they dried our clothes on those ropes.

 We all have been there and used strings,threads and ropes for many a functions that stick with us even today as we live away from our parents in distant corners of the world. 

All our loved ones have done some kind of art and crafts for us using threads ..an age old craft that lies in our cupboards...on our sofas... on our beds.... on our shoulders.... in our purses and in all the possible corners of our house. The art of HAND EMBROIDERY. My mother and sisters have done it for me and shown their immense love in a material form, as their love cant be measured otherwise.

During Vrinda's first year I thought of using the same craft for her and make something memorable. Thats when I decided to go on tube and learn hand embroidery.  Thought was to make something for her each year with a collection of that year's memories on the product. And since it was the first year, I zeroed on her "Names". Now all of us have a "formal name" and a "nick name", but then, we are also called by "love names". These are the names that our 'Nanis', 'Dadis', 'Uncles', 'Aunts' and  parents call us with - names attached with love and affection. Vrinda also had such names, and a lot many of them.

 Aim was to document all her names at one place. So I picked up a white sheet and started my first year embroidery project.

Weeks and months went by and my work started to come together.

I tried picking up motifs that would appeal to her in my opinion, and colors that would attract her towards it. I took inspiration from her things, like her frocks and shoes.

One by one each name took its place on the sheet as if they were always meant to be there.

I was gaining confidence and expertise with time. I wanted to learn more as I maneuvered my way through new stitches and techniques.

 At the same time with each new pattern coming along, I could realize the time and effort my loved ones had put into something like this when they made it for me.

 The flowers, the names, the colors, the combinations...all of them display the essence of my feelings while making it. I had never been happier while creating something.

 As I finished making my Love's first birthday gift, my happiness had no bounds imagining the time (in future), when Vrinda would actually realize the worth of this gift from her mother.

And now its time to start work on my next embroidery project as a gift for her second birthday, and what that would be...you will have to wait and watch ! :-) I am already short of time!