[ Blast from past ]
Today I will share a book and a teapot with you. Both I inherited from my grandparents. It is a 1947 edition of Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald. I managed the book from my grand father’s library. He had a big personal library stuffed with various kinds of books.
It was a room full of 10 shelves all stuffed. When our big house was up for sale the majority of the books were donated to a law college in our paternal village in Barisal, which is named after him. I literally took or you can rather say stole this book while they were organizing it in boxes.
First, I liked the look of the book and the illustrations inside. Second, the name of the book was quite interesting Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam. The pages are still undamaged. The book had a strong binding with my grandfather’s name engraved on it. I love poems, thus read it at times. But I mostly take it out hold it in my arms just to feel it. When I took it from the shelf I was almost 20. I wanted to keep something of my granddad who was a great man.
The later is the teapot my grandmother had. It is a part of her famous Edwardian dinner set that was equally divided among all her 18 children. My father inherited his share of the dinner set and passed it to me. This is a beautiful teapot, and I wish to use it on important days but, I fear I might break it, hence I keep it locked.
This is too very dear to my heart, perhaps among few things that I want to take with me to my grave. Beautiful floral designed teapot is a sure treasure.
10 July is my granddad’s death anniversary. As a tribute to the great soul, I shared my precious possessions with my readers.
Photo: Author.