Embroidery and an Elephant

Living in Kashmir 1979-80: A Year of People, Places and Memories

Embroidered goods

Among the many crafts displayed in bazaars of Kashmir, the beautiful embroidered shawls were a prized purchase made by many a tourist. The stitches used were deceptively simple, mainly satin stitch, stem stitch and chain stitch but the fine quality of the work, drew many an admirer.

One did not always need to seek out the merchants. They came to us. Keen-eyed and unhurried, they glided across Dal Lake in their shikaras whenever word reached them that a person was lingering on a houseboat, enjoying oneself, as one might politely describe it.

 

Carmel purchasing embroidered goods

In this photograph, a visiting merchant has drawn his shikara alongside to display his wares. It was here that I purchased a lovely white cape with pale blue embroidery, its tiny intricate stitches speaking of patient hours and practised hands. Several other shawls followed me home that season, and most have since found their way into other hands and other houses, which seems a fitting end for things made to be admired.

The embroidered suede coats, trimmed with fur were a particular favourite among visiting women. Mine served me faithfully for many years, and then, as the best-loved garments sometimes do, it passed to the next generation. In the late 1990s, our teenage daughter wore it in the cold winters of Paris. She assures me she still has it all these years later.

The embroidered coat many years later

Embroidered bags and cushion covers were also popular items, but again discarded after many years of use.

An Elephant in the Yard

In our apartment on the first floor in Sonwar, Srinagar, my husband woke me one morning with the calm announcement that there was an elephant in the yard. Given that we had spent a rather merry evening with friends the night before, I took this news with some skepticism. Elephants in the yard were not, as a rule, a feature of our mornings.

The apartment in Sonwar Bagh, Srinagar on the first floor.
This was the scene of the collapsed ceiling and of the elephant sighting.
(water damaged photo)

He was quite right, of course. There it stood, enormous, unhurried, entirely at ease in surroundings that were considerably less accustomed to it, than it appeared to be. The elephant had simply wandered away from its keeper. The keeper appeared later in the day enquiring whether by any chance an elephant had been sighted in the vicinity. 

It had indeed.

Not the elephant in our yard but our souvenir wooden hand painted elephants 

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin