Never spoke about these for a long time… Made them last year and travelled with them. Kept them boxed for a long time not knowing they even existed until now. Parting for me is difficult, specially when I make things that belong to a piece of my heart.
Around those days, I worked from my loft in my old house, my mum downstairs would sometimes make malas for the mandir (small shrine for worshipping). Rajnigandha’ had always been a part of our household and always around the house. They're such beautiful fragrant flowers. Tiny stick like bulbs that fills the house with fragrance.
Not just that, but these flowers were a metaphor for romance in one such song where the movie went by the name of the flower.
Rajnigandha Phil Tumhare, is by far once of my fav. songs till date and will forever be.
Interestingly, I was making roses one day (roses were something I worked on around that time). While my mum was making malas, we were listening to Lata Mangeshkar songs and this song played.
That moment is something that I find difficult to explain in words, it can only be felt.
Nevertheless I’ll try; It is about 2 women from different generations, identifying with the lyrical meaning that talks about romance, longing and submitting. Our ways of expressing have changed, but the words are still the same, feelings are still the same.
My mum and I don’t discuss our stories. But I have to come to realize that her enjoying those lyrics saying that “nobody can pen feelings this way today” talks so much about her still being a blooming woman in her heart. I had to cease that moment of realization for me to remember forever.
Rajnigandha’a in an Indian household are those moments, most of us have had these in our lives. These flowers are just one of those muses or rather a object of realization, it is about the one thing that made you connect with your loved one in your life. To me, they’re the sign of connecting with the woman I love the most, my mother.
That is how I made the ceramic Rajnigandha’ came into being, the ones that will never wither and stay forever.