Alarm clock, White Saree, bamboo mattress, batasa (traditional sweets), vermilion, oil and Sekaler Grihobodhur Diary (Diary of a housewife from the olden days) by Monoda Debi.
Three indoor spaces: Forashgonj Road Orphanage, 2/2 Mohinimohon Das Lane and 62 Forashgonj Road, Old Dhaka. 8 hours, 1 square Mile, Britto Art Trust, 1square Mile, Britto Arts Trust, 2015
Photo: Hadiuddin
How women inhabit indoor lives even when time changes. The confinement, jewelled lives, social appropriation, religious domination and male gaze all remain the same, still women hold culture, nurture tradition, preserve seeds and dedicate for families.
To examine how a memoir of an indoor woman from the end of the 19th century to the woman of indoors at the end of the 20th century reflects upon the customs, lived experiences, and acceptance of traditions in an intimate manner of the women's homes, I adopted a Bengali ritualistic reading pattern to read the book to the women of three households in Old Dhaka. Sekaler Grihobodhur Diary (Diary of a Housewife from the olden days) is a memoir from 1885-1888 written by Monoda Debi. The story reading was like a walking performance for a day from home to home in the old town of Dhaka. Outsiders, especially men, were not allowed inside the privacy of the houses, so we live-streamed the readings outside the houses.