The old-world charm of hand-fans
THANKS to the prolonged power outages this summer, I have come across hand-fans after a long time. With the advent of electrical fans, coolers and air-conditioners, this important household item was completely forgotten.
The other day, the whole family reeled under power cuts for over six hours in the night. The next morning, my wife asked me to immediately bring hand-fans from the market as she expected the nightmare to continue in the coming days too. My little daughter was surprised to see the new entrant as she had never seen it before. It was a toy of sorts for her.
She insisted that all the four fans be handed over to her so that she could play with them. Eventually, we had to bow to her wish and all the fans were given to her. There was no electricity in the house and my daughter was in possession of the item bought to get relief from the heat, thus depriving us of the comfort we were seeking. We waited for her to hand them over to us so that we could fan ourselves. When she finally started sweating, we took them back and provided respite to her as well as ourselves.
A long time ago, hand-fans were found in every home, especially in villages. Lack of power generation and supply was common, so hand-fans were an important item in every household. These used to be an integral part of Punjabi culture and are frequently mentioned in Punjabi folklore. Many village women would make beautiful and embroidered hand-fans. Moreover, these were sent along with other items at weddings. With the improvement in the power scenario, hand-fans almost disappeared from homes.
These days, hand-fans are also a source of political satire. I saw some posts on social media in which there were pictures of political leaders using hand-fans. A few days ago, a colleague came with a hand-fan in her purse. Taking a dig, she said if ACs were to be banned in the office, it should be made mandatory for every employee to bring a hand-fan. Taking a cue from her, other women have also started the practice. We were taken by surprise when a woman from our neighbourhood came to our house to ask for a hand-fan. It seemed that she had seen me bringing it from the market. She said the market was closed due to the lockdown and ceiling fans or table fans could not be bought at a time when she urgently needed them.
Sometimes, the traditional things that we forget do come back to us in one form or the other.
