Bird Song

In my memory, my paternal aunt or bua, was the one who introduced
us to a lot of our own personal oral history about our village and the
way women lived. She stepped into a maternal role at the age of
twelve, after her mother’s death, raising her five younger siblings. I
always perceived her as significantly older; it was much later that I
discovered that she was merely 8 years older than my father. She was
a child herself when she took over the role of their mother.
In our ancestral village, Pind Dadan Khan, my aunt would recount a
familiar scene: after completing their morning chores, the village
women would converge beneath a Banyan tree. The houses,
strategically positioned around this central gathering point, had their
back entrances opening towards the tree’s shade. They would keep
their charkhas and large boxes containing their embroidery material
and cloth that was loomed out from the charkhas, permanently under
the tree. The width of this cloth was 15 inches. The cloth could of any
length but the width remained 15 inches.
The women would stitch them together to form a huge chaddar with
colorful phulkari stich. This chaddar was usually done on raw khadi
cloth with colorful earth colors with phulkari stich.

It was usually handed down as a family heirloom to the daughters as
well as the daughter in laws of the family. I remember my bua telling
me that before they left Pind Dadan Khan in 1947, she had already
completed the phulkari chaddars for all the daughters and to be
daughter in laws of the family! So, you can imagine it was like a
mission to complete.
The phulkari’s ends were sometimes simply hemmed or tapered off
with crochet lace, which they had inherited from the Britishers. I have
seen her making these crochet and intricate shuttle laces with her
nimble fingers. Even my younger bua, who is 92 now, is very busy
making crochet bed covers. It is a great privilege and honour for me
to remember these strong women of my family in a way by this
phulkari The Bird Song that I did for Khula Aasman. I talk about the

partitions of lands, rivers and animals, but you cannot control the
birds. They defy gravity and the defiance of any borders or breaking
of skies which is not accepted by them. This is also a visual depiction
of my poetry.

Birdsong

I wonder with the stars on my side
over the seas, rivers and plains
the moon cycles, tides
showers that bind the heavens and earth
as blood that flows
within you and me
The Word for World is Home
I take a flight over all the love, hate,
blood and slaughter
over ideas and idols
over religions and politics
come fly with me
The Word for World is Home
– Seema Kohli