My Mum’s ‘Singer’

If I were to name one thing that I absolutely associate with my mum, it would be her ‘Singer’. Her beloved Singer sewing machine. The most poignant memory of  my childhood is her sewing away in the afternoons till it was time to cook dinner. And then, she would unhinge the handle, tuck the unfinished garment in the base, and pack the machine in its wooden cover.

It was from its compartment that toddler me had fished out a tailoring chalk and pushed it up my nose, watching her as she hunted around for it until she realized it was up my nostril! Another time, I did the same with a tich button which would not get pulled out and she had to rush me to the doc! After which she stopped storing her tailoring supplies in the machine’s compartment (and began keeping a sharp eye on me as I toddled around!)

The machine is as old as my mum. Her mum – my grandmum – bought it soon after my mother was born, an original Singer machine made in England. When my mum married, grandmum gifted the machine to her.

My mum would sew everything we needed ~ our clothes, school uniforms, curtains, cushion covers, blankets, even pants were made on the Singer. I remember my dad coming home from work and helping her cut fabric for my frocks from patterns in magazines. My favorite is the dress she fashioned out of my grandmother’s 50-year-old-real-zari lehenga for my eleventh birthday!

When my mum moved in with me a couple of years ago, the Singer came along. Despite the (almost) nine decades it has seen, it shines bright, black paint intact, gold lettering faded a little here and there, wooden base and cover as good as new.

Till date, all our clothes are repaired on the Singer. Which is why life came to a standstill last week when threads from the reel and the bobbin would not interlock properly. And for the first time in nine decades, the ‘repairer’ needed repairing.

And as I watched the technician service the machine, brushing it, oiling it, adjusting it, I realized the extent of my emotional connect with the machine. It is an extension of my mum and all that she epitomizes. The three of us have been together from the day I was born! Perhaps this explains the amazing amount of contentment I felt when all was well in our ‘Singer’ world again!

PS: What are your mum’s beloved things? Do share.