Home chef Nirmala Hegde has fought arthritis to pivot her hobby of embroidery into a more creative calling to suit the Gen Z consumer
A tapestry in the shape of the game, snakes and ladders; (right) a crocheted teacozy. Pics Courtesy/Gautam Hegde
The Japanese found a term to describe that fine balance between doing something you love, and finding a way to be successful at it. They called it ikigai. Nirmala Hegde might not be familiar with the term, but her joy and skill at designing embroidered tapestries can only be defined so. Ask her, and she casually mentions, “I just like to stay busy.”
If her name sounds familiar, it is because Hegde ran Aai’s Kitchen, the popular Malad-based cloud kitchen that became a go-to for Karwari and Maharashtrian home-cooked food during the lockdown. Working with her son, Gautam Hegde, she would dole out prawn pickles, chicken Karwari and mushroom pulao, among others. “I have always loved cooking, but arthritis came in the way,” Nirmala reveals.
Nirmala Hegde works on a new stitch back at home in Malad
Staying idle was never an option though. “I had to do something to take my mind off the arthritis,” she admits. This led her to the needle and thread. It might seem like a chic skill to stem brain rot for GenZers, but for the 68-year-old, it dates back to her childhood. “I learned it back when I was a young girl in Honavar in Karwar, Karnataka,” she shares. We hazard a guess that there were no mobile phones to doom-scroll on back then. “In the afternoon, the women would often sit around and stitch different things while talking. We [children] would sit beside them and learn. If someone brought a new cloth or design from Bengaluru, they would find their own way to learn how it was stitched,” she laughs.
Moving to Mumbai after her marriage, she did not lose touch with the art form. Using a combination of machine-stitching and embroidery, Nirmala creates tapestries that are a throwback to childhood nostalgia — from board games of Snake and ladders, to Ludo. Others come from moments of random inspiration, like the leaf from the Ranveer Singh-starrer, Lootera. She works slowly, but always returns to finish the work.
A Ludo tapestry embroidered by Nirmala Hegde
“It was in 2015 that one of Gautam’s friends saw a tapestry, and suggested I should put it up for sale,” the Malad-resident admits. But with home and later, her kitchen, taking up time, the hobby remained on the backburner. The threads come from Lokhandwala market, while the patchworks are collected from discarded clothes, fabrics and other material. “She has a collection of patchworks built up over time. She also crochets, but embroidery is one of her favourite pastimes,” shares Gautam, who has framed several of her works at home. Ever since it gained popularity online, it has caught the eye of a new generation that enjoys decorating their homes with memories.
Tell her that she might set a trend, and Nirmala shrugs it away. “I do it to keep busy. People like it, and that makes me happy,” she says. The Japanese would call it ikigai, Nirmala Hegde just calls it a hobby.
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