Written piece
PETTIS FROM THE PAST
Santhini Govindan
India
About this piece
My poem is about the boxes (called ‘pettis’ in Malayalam) I inherited - a traditional wooden storage chest, jewellery box, cash box, and a box for storing betel nuts. Though the original owners are gone, the boxes are threads that connect me to my ancestors and my roots.
PETTIS FROM THE PAST
I use them as decorative accent pieces, and scatter them around my home;
The ancient ‘pettis’ or boxes that were handed down to me.
My great great grandmother stored her white, cotton mundu sets,
In the rosewood chest with brass inlay, called kaalpetti.
I wonder if her precious ‘nettur petti’ or jewellery box,
Was also stored between the cotton mundus in that deep chest.
It must have held the heavy gold thoda earrings that dangled
From her elongated earlobes, which for beauty, were pulled and stretched.
I wonder if that nettur petti with its smooth, peaked lid
Held the heavy gold chains and bangles that she wore every day.
Great great grandmother didn’t know how to read or write,
So, she never had to count the coins, or ‘kashu’ to pay
From the weathered old ‘kai-petti,’ or cashbox that now rests,
Polished, on my sideboard, filled with a collection of napkin rings.
It stands next to a carved brass betel nut box, or ‘chella petti,’
Whose compartments are now filled with odds and ends and unused things.
This box must once have been part of a betel chewing ritual
That delighted an unknown ancestor in Kerala, over a century ago.
My inherited pettis absorbed the energy, touch, warmth,
Moods, emotions, and routines of each of their owners, and so,
They are threads that bind me to my lineage and my roots.
They carry the nostalgia of generations who have passed away
As part of my daily life and home, my precious heirloom pettis
Connect me to my ancestors in the best possible way.