The Yellow Butterfly

Q from AtoZChallenge Quilt.  गोधडी.  Hand-stitched गोधडी!  When I was around seven or eight, my Aaji hand-stitched two गोधडीs for me. One was a magenta-red with white and orange dots and elephants on the border and the other was a bright mango-yellow with tiny white polka dots and a brown border.  She had used four of her sarees, rather पात्तळ (her word for her everyday soft cotton sarees) and had undertaken this 'project of love' for me, her youngest grand-daughter!  She had layered one saree over the other, keeping the pretty, softer side on the outside and had hand-stitched it with the thicker thread and a taller pin.  My Aaji had a sewing machine at home. A regular tailor's machine, which worked manually. The one where you had to step on and keep pedaling and tapping for the machine to move. She had used the machine for years, stitching bags, pillow covers, making kids' dresses and many things (which surprisingly I never got to see...

H  of #AtoZChallenge  'Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times,  if only one remembers to turn on the light!' (image courtesy: Google images) I was amongst the 'first receivers' of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer' s Stone and Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets books in India; the British  editions published by Bloomsbury! My Gaurav Kaka bought them in London when he was coming back to India and had gifted me. I was in my sixth standard back then; some eleven years old. SAME AGE AS HARRY :)  Only back then I didn't know what I had received! Though I was amongst the first receivers of the book, I was NOT amongst the first readers of the books! It took me a while to realize that I was sitting on a goldmine! My creche Mavshi, Jyoti Kakee and Jui Tai had taken the entire group to watch the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The movie shook me to the core! Harry's journey to Hogwarts, exploring the magical wo...