A little (?) conversation with Faizan that brought this out.
An anecdote that took place over Faizan doing the monthly washing of all the brass stuff at home, and one of those times I chose to help.
She picks up the one copper bowl amongst all the brassware and says "इसके ऊपर कितना मैल है देखो अम्मा " (this one has so much more dirt on it). And I'm trying to tell her it's not dirt, it's because it is copper, an alloy which has a different composition, and so a different level of oxidization and that's why it's turned black......so to use more imli (tamarind) than sabina.
You can imagine my struggle trying to do that in Hindi...I'm going all over the place, and suddenly she's like :
"मतलब वोह पैदाइशी है, वोह उसका फ़िदरथ है ?"
फ़िदरथ.... fidhrath...I rolled it around on my tongue a couple of times, new word to me, so exotic, almost like out of a shaayari.....but just by the sound of it, and the way she'd said it, I knew she'd got it.
And from there came deep conversation, about how intrinsic is फ़िदरथ to people ...... about our beliefs and values, and how at times we can have self defeating beliefs.... and what it takes to change what's not working for us, even our own फ़िदरथ.
Fascinating....a conversation that led both of us into the deepest recesses of our minds.......and left us happy watching the copper bowl go from an almost black to a shiny copper.
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