I have always been interested in objects and the narratives that they can reveal. Objects become an extension of the individual and are transformed by the touch. They shape people’s lives as well as carry residual memories of lived moments. Personally, they can evoke many connections I had with my father but for others they may create a glimpse of his personality.
My father was a religious man, and a staunch right-winger. He was a ritualistic man with strong views about politics, morals, and lifestyle. Coming from a very low-income family, he began his career as an assistant station master in the Indian Railways and took voluntary retirement to avoid regular transfers. Later, he set up a typing shop with a second-hand Oliver typewriter from the 1930’s purchased from the Mysore palace. Later, he also had a letterpress typing shop along with cyclostyling; some of the underground literature during the Emergency period was printed in his letter press. When the electronic typewriter was developed, he took on huge loans to set up an Electronic Typing Institute which never saw success. Looking back, I see that our family was caught up in the vortex of change that the new technology of the time created. My father didn’t want to discard these typewriters which shaped his life, and so they remained in the attic.
He also kept a cupboard of his belongings in my house. After he passed away, it took me several months to muster the mental strength to open it. When I finally did, every object I found there, his clothes and other knick knacks evoked a flood of emotion and elicited strong associations. As I waded through his remaining objects and belongings, I realized that his life was at once as ordinary as anybody else’s life but unique in the struggles he had to resolve.
Here I wanted to create a book which will capture his persona through little details of objects, text and data.
Before his death, he was suffering from serious health issues. As he was staying with me, I would record his BP, weight, and oxygen levels every day to send to my brother who is a doctor. These are the numbers you will see at the bottom of every page.