Hyderabad’s 81-year-old former educationalist Jeroo Parakh (née Nakra) held her much awaited exhibition of embroidered items at the Cabinet Room of Hyderabad’s ITC Kakatiya Hotel on March 6, 2021. Four hundred pieces were snapped up in record time.
Parakh’s speciality is satin stitch. Her work is so fine that one often wonders if it is a painting rather than embroidery. This was her sixth exhibition which she held after a period of five years as she had a niggling pain in her neck. She decided to use the lockdown period last year to start her work and worked at breakneck speed. She produced picture frames, hand towels, kitchen towels, face towels, party towels, cheval sets, runners and table mats, tablecloths matched with napkins, saris and sari borders too. A giant majestic picture frame done in cross stitch was the cynosure of all eyes and a real show stopper. She gets "immense pleasure to blend the colors and see the end product.”
Jeroo Parakh: "joy in every stitch" Photo: Daanesh Aria
Parakh’s is a one woman show. From drawing the thread in the needle, to cutting the fabric used, tacking the edges, doing the embroidery, ironing the pieces and machine edging them and finally packing, she does every bit of the work by herself. "I take joy in every stitch,” she tells us. "The Cabinet Room at the Hotel has always been the venue for all my exhibitions. It has been my lucky charm.” She has already started working for her next exhibition.
She informs us that the embroidery pieces were ferried to the exhibition in suitcases and cartons and were "four car loads full.” Her son Sarosh, daughter Meher Aria, son-in-law Kerfy and grandson Daanesh all helped her at the exhibition, she notes.
"She has imbibed a family legacy as her mother Nergis Italia also used to love embroidery and her great-grandmother Baimai Italia used to embroider gorgeous saris even at the age of 93,” shared Meher.
Jeroo lost her mother at a very early age but she started her embroidery with her mother’s sister Gool Tata at the age of 13. But she had her first embroidery exhibition only in 2000. She had always shared her work with friends and they clamored for more. Her first show was a hit and there was much appreciation for her work. Jeroo especially thanks her cousin Gool Pestonji and "dear friend” Dolly Chinoy for their patronage.
Having done her Montessori training in Bombay under the legendary Tehmina Wadia, she returned to Hyderabad to start her own school, House of Children. She then ran another school, Sonar, for 42 years. The most wonderful years of her life, she mentions, have been teaching children who are now doctors, lawyers and successful professionals but still remember her. Beyniaz Edulji