Sunday, May 8, 2011
Narrow lanes in Wan Chai in Hong Kong in May … weekend crowds thronging the streets for shopping … hot humid weather with air full of different kinds of sound … knick-knacks of all kinds imaginable (and some you’d never think of) …
I was walking with one of my friends, just looking around, and in the middle of all the chaos, we saw an old man with a very small stall selling crochet pins of different sizes and threads of different colours and width. The unexpected sight of these pins and thread threw me back to my schooldays when, in one of the classes called SUPW (social useful productive work), we were taught interesting things like making greeting cards with oil paints, crocheting, cross-stitching, knitting, and making bags out of jute.
I enjoyed these classes very much in my schooldays. I never had a chance to do any of those things again – or I chose not to. Still, the memory of old days made me buy a crochet pin and some threads at the old man’s stall.
I was not sure whether I would do anything with them, but once I sat down with them – while watching TV – my fingers started working on their own. I was delighted to find myself creating the same patterns I had known in school. I used to think that women who knitted or did similar things really had nothing else to do, but the rediscovery of crocheting made me realize that these are actually very engaging and interesting activities which allow one to create beautiful designs out of nothing.
This incident made me think that maybe my beliefs over the years need rethinking and a new way of seeing.