‘The Blue Sweater’ is a journey through memories of a place and way of life that no longer exists. Memories that are now fading away and some I have already lost. I travelled back in my memory and gathered all that I remembered of living in my village. While we embraced development, we lost a lot too. Bridges sprung up connecting the islands of the coast to the city, machines began plying the land, and alongside, trees and animals started disappearing. My memories are now a mixed bag of vivid imageries of an actual tropical village that used to be, and all those stories I cooked up to boast about to my classmates. Some stories I have narrated way so many times they have become so real I can’t think of them merely as stories anymore.
The Blue Sweater explores family bonding, love and tragedy—an overwhelming part of my life back then. It is a story of siblings and their relationship enshrined in the celebration of ‘Rakshabhandan’, a day that celebrates the sacred relationship between brothers and sisters in India. Rakshabhandhan, also known as Rakhi Poornima or Savan Poornima, falls on a fullmoon day of the Indian Lunar calendar. ‘The Blue Sweater’ became a story of the love of a sister for her brother and the pain of a tragedy that befalls them.
We all know life is hard, and often tragic, but I wanted to underscore the possibility of hope when things seem bleak. Stories of memories help us through all of that and I wanted to re-invent optimism in making one such story myself
