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Finding myself with the Punjab Cultural Project
- Reman Sandhu
- Jul 22, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 17, 2024
It was during the planning of my wedding functions that my mother pulled out a “Baagh '' that was woven by her great grandmother and embroidered by her grandmother. As I explored a cupboard full of such pieces I was inheriting, it hit me– all I had left of our culture were these pieces, I’d lost all its craft and expertise. And as these pieces succumb to time, the generations after us will inherit none of it.
I then came to realise that I had shunned my culture and heritage in my attempt to be a modern working woman. I thought I was too good to learn these regressive skills for I had a lot more to accomplish than settle into this role of a woman. I realise now that in that defiance, the only thing I actually lost was access to my history, culture and heritage.
I’ve studied and worked outside Punjab for most of my life and have dealt with the stereotypical associations with being Punjabi. And when talking of the culture of other states ( like the down South), of the wisdom, of their arts and culture, I’ve unknowingly contributed to the decline of my own. What we have left now is either a very typical puraana zamaana approach to heritage, too afraid to be bastardised or a pop-culture reference to aish, gedi and car-o-baar in the name of the culture in Punjab.
As Chitra and I started talking about working in this field, we quickly realised how few avenues exist for the younger generations to find their space within Punjab. How a lack of spaces, creative expressions and centres to impart these skills, is disallowing people from finding their own selves within the cultural space. The more we discussed the clearer it became– we need to create spaces for people to learn about culture, and find ways to make it their own, so that they can keep it alive and mould it in ways they need to be able to pass it on to the next generations. If it's too rigid,it’ll die soon, if it’s too fluid, we’ll lose all essence of it, maybe a middle path, combining the old and the new is what we want to achieve.
And as Chitra writes in her blog, the lack of avenues and our desire to create spaces to access culture together led to the formation of PCP. As we undertake this journey, we invite you to co-create with us, to help everyone find their own ways of creative expressions and to build a community that can support one another and re-create a space for Punjab and culture be it food, fashion, music, art, architecture, literature, crafts and more, in Punjab, at a global stage.
Please join us as we curate and create events, residencies, dialogues, debates, festivals, skill centres, and more across Punjab!
