My Papa’s Khadi Kurta - A Requiem

In the last years of his life, papa was largely homebound and he preferred dressing in white khadi kurta pyjama. I would not say that papa was a freedom fighter and that he gave his life for the nation. Though who knows, if he just may have, if he had a choice. Papa simply couldn’t afford that luxury. His father having died early of tuberculosis, responsibility of taking care of five women fell on his young shoulders. His mother, his grandmother, wife and two daughters. However, papa did participate actively in the freedom struggle when young, especially in the Quit India movement of 1942 - like so many young men and women of his generation.
Mahatma Gandhi was their role model and to live by his ideals was the only way to live!
Supporting the swadeshi movement was crucial for the free nation to be self-reliant. Wearing khadi was a way of life for him like for so many others of his generation. Life moved on for Papa and all of us... Besides making a home in Bombay, Papa’s work often took him to London and New York for extended periods. As a corporate in a global business scenario he had to dress accordingly but his khadi never left him. Even while he lived in New York for many years, I made sure to reach him with khadi baniyans regularly, purchased from khadi Bhandar on Sir. Phirozsha Mehta Road in Bombay. The only store he visited ever so often.
Khadi never left him and he never left khadi.
To put it simply, this khadi kurta embodies my Papa life.
Never mind if all the markings and the graffiti scribbled on it does not make sense
Perhaps the kurta is more about sentiments and not so much about making sense!

Mala Sinha
Bodhi
August 2022