We all know him as the Chairman of the Punjab and Haryana Bar Council. But then there is more to Harish Rai Dhandha than meets the eye. Let us take a glimpse at the Vintage Dhandhas.
“The title was given to us for a reason,” states Bhabish Rai Kaur, Harish’s mother, as she displays her simply to die for phulkaris and baaghs. Given to her by the royal family of Gurcharan Singh Sandhawalia she says, ‘‘these items were a part of my wedding trousseu and they are not ready made. The pink one is hand embroidered by my father’s maternal grandmother. It has these traditional Punjabi motifs made with chain stitch while the gota work on this is again pure,” says Bhabish.
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“This duppatta is almost 100 years old and the other red baagh is again hand embroidered by my own maternal grandmother and is almost 80 years old. I has many such items which I have distributed equally amongst my children.’’ adds the 79 year old Bhabish as she elegantly draps the pink duppatta on her shoulders.
Vijay Rai Dhandha, Harish’s wife, later takes us on a tour of her house, ‘‘this lampshade is around a hundred years old and was used by our great grandfather in his office from where he practised law,” she proudly mentions adding, “This tea set is around some 80 years old which was attained by grand father , who was contemporary to former prime-minster Jawahar Lal Nehru at the Linclon’s Law College in England. This wooden chest is also almost a century old. We own two of these one is here while the other is at my brother-in- law’s place. It is just that our family has always treasured our items. We never neglected them.”
It was now Harish Rai Dhandha’s turn to introduce us to the his world of vintage, “a person who is the son of the soil to land can never forget his roots. My father was a farmer and we, his children, have done the same thing.”
Coming to his favourite vintage collection Dhandha says, “I have a good collection of vintage weapons.’’ Here enters Chandan Bhushan Dhandha, Harish’s young son carrying the .60 bore 100 year old rifle.
“My children Kanika, Swati and Chandan have imbibed this spirit of respecting their roots from our family,” he claims.
The head of the family, K.B. Dhandha, then comes into the picture as he proudly displays his red Indian Chief motorcycle which came into this family way back in 1940.
“This has been with my family since time immemorial. My children have driven this very motocycle to almost all parts of Punjab. It has been my mode of transportation since ever and it is so famous that people have termed my home as the house with the red motorcycle.’’