Rest is Sweet, 2009
This letter to my son is in the form of an Indian palm-leaf manuscript.
It tells a story from when he was four years-old, while sharing stories of other family members back in India and how they celebrate the holiday of Saraswati Puja.
Seventeen stories; handmade paper, ritual mauli string, and brass bells from Mumbai, India; and a sweet box from Fairfax, VA.
Page one of the book:
“My dear son Arjiit,
Every year, sometime in January, many Indians celebrate Saraswati Puja. You know Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge and the arts, and puja is the word for worship, right? And you also know the now-famous story of yourself-- the little four year-old boy who took a bite out of every sweet, yellow peda, that your grandma had bought to offer the goddess on that special holiday.
Since on this day we ask the goddess to bless our books, our art, and our music, I thought I’d make you a book, too-- a book that is a work of art and lives inside that sweet box we bought at the Indian sweet store in Fairfax, Virginia. A book of stories about how your family back in India celebrate this holiday. Enjoy!
Love, Mumma. 2009”
Rest is Sweet, was in the Susan Hensel Gallery’s show Leap of Faith, Minneapolis, MN. 2009
August 2025
I learn from reading Old Stacks, New Leaves: The Arts of the Book in South Asia, edited by Sonal Khullar, that what I know as the palm-leaf manuscript is called pothi.
And that the earliest known depiction of a book in South Asia, is a third century CE stone sculpture from Mathura of the goddess Saraswati holding a pothi in an image commissioned by the Jain community.
That is how long we have had respect for the book!