I have loved collecting preowned vintage paatra/પાત્ર/ vessels much before I began food blogging. A lot of brassware that I now shoot with is a family heirloom. Earlier I would use these pieces only as decor but now they double up as props. The food blogging journey just made me a little more greedy to keep adding to the collection. It did pain me to see such beautifully handcrafted articles in scrapyard or given away as junk either because they were hard to maintain, donned bruises, cracks, dents or because they had to clear space for steel and non-stick ware. I loved bringing them home. They share beautiful stories, have names of their owners inscribed over them, owners who would have cherished and loved them. These paatra have beautiful names too, I am learning so many, trying to relate these names with ones I have.
Beginning today I will be sharing the specific names, finer details, ergonomics, uses and the beauty of the paatra I have collected over the years. The first to go is this brilliantly crafted brass Kchumbari/કચુમબરી or Khamani/ખમણી – grater as we know it in English. It served a dual purpose, that of shredding coconut and grating vegetables. It is preowned beauty I had picked up from Ahmedabad’s Sunday flea market called Ravivari, it has become wobbly with age but the details are excellent. I have seen many of these in shape of a turtle. I love the way elephant’s trunk extends into a shredder in this piece. And the name Kachumbari sounds charming against Chini/છીણી as we call steel graters these days.
No Comments