The ebb and flow of the great ‘Bharani.’

Walking into my ancestral home, I was struck by the oddest sensation.
I was peering into the feasts at the communal dinner table, the spools of vermicelli in hot milk,
the laughs and gathering of friends and family over pazhampori and hot coffee. I was staring
into the memories of the past, the yesteryears that belonged to my grandparents, my father, and
his siblings. This realization brought me the strangest happiness –the dusty cabinets that once
housed collectibles from all over, my grandmother’s trunk that held clothes from the time of her
wedding, the vessels, and the pots. Like somehow, they made me a participant in a few distant
memories.

Scavenging through the old house, I found a pair of vintage glazed stoneware. Often spotted

around our homes with pickled lemons, mangoes, and salted sardines, a piece of kitchenware
that seems central to the typical Indian household. Until I saw the fine print – ‘Made in England,’
it read.
Thus, began a stream of thought. Why was this quintessential piece of Indian kitchenware made
in England? Well, a quick Google search lent me the answers - colonization and cultural
appropriation. This seemed like a logical conclusion at the time.
I wondered if that was true. So, I traced back a few centuries ago in my hunt. Where did the
vintage stoneware originate? What resulted in this kitchenware crossing oceans and continents
to become a familiar innuendo in the average Indian home. Reading historic accounts led me to
conclude that, much like the chicken and the egg, we will never know who the real brain behind
the creation of the infamous stoneware was – the East or the West. While the origins remain
unclear, it is quite certain that this technique was not created in India.
That being said, the historic trade silk route also played a monumental role in influencing the
culture and culinary heritage of the countries and provinces it has traversed – with the mighty
rose cookie having seen many versions with aliases such as achappam, rosette, and rose de
coque. With every country it traveled to, its inhabitants warmly made it their own. And just like
the rose cookie, our vintage stoneware has its versions. But how did this object land in India?

Chances are that when the Chinese landed on the coastlines of Calicut, their settlers brought

with them the vintage stoneware along with many other items like the wok. Because of its utility,
the vintage stoneware found a home among our country's ordinary masses.
While it’s fun to make assumptions, the real story continues. As a country, India has been
deeply influenced by its colonizers and visitors, from our culinary legacies to architecture and
many more. Our vintage stoneware is also a result of this assimilation, where a few remnants of
history and colonization carry on not emotions of anger or bitterness but nostalgia and identity.
Thinking back, my Bharani carried the taste of summer through preserved fish from the season
or salted mangoes and pickled limes. It holds memories of my grandmother; the picturesque
image of hot lunch being served on a sweaty afternoon with my cousins frolicking around the
house.

The debate of its origin almost becomes an uninteresting speculation because

somewhere along the way, we’ve managed to make it our own. Be it carrying carnations for a
wedding or scooping that tasty morsel of sardines - my Bharani is Indian.