A takhti, traditionally is a wooden board,quite resembling a clipboard of today but with a twist. And to write on a takhti you need 'siyaahi' (ink) and 'kalam' (pen). And then, just write straight onto the board. So, what do you do when there is no more space on the takhti ? Well, wipe ad clean it and start again. Over time it gets worn and looks like an old chopping board. And therein lies the romance of a takhti.
For me, Takhti represents old ways. It represents time when it was still measured in hours and days and not in seconds and nano seconds. It is an echo of an era when we still bothered to remember spellings, when disposable pens were not an option. A takhti probably, gave 'a clean slate' its first meaning.
So, it was only apt that this chapter of my journey be penned on a 'Takhti'.
Does anyone still posess an old Takhti?
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Sometimes old Takhti were works or art, painted on the back with holy scenes from the Ramayana etc. I suspect that these eleborate ones may have been used by the wealthy in India. Of course the writing side was plain. I saw a beautiful antique one recently with Lord Hanuman on the back. As to a 'clean slate', no, that expression comes from England where Victorian school children scratched letters and words with a stylus onto a piece of thin (stone) slate, if the slate was wiped with a damp cloth the writing dissapeared and the slate re-used.
ReplyDeleteWe used a particular clay as ink for writing on the black surface of the wooden slate (takhti).
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