Partnership Reviews: The Most Successful Partnership in the History of Successful Partnerships by Anmol Chacko and Athira Jamwal

Which is completely different and totally better than Rakshanda and Vedant's partnership which the Panel has decided to do a feature on. Which doesn't bother us. 

At all.

Before I, Athira, start writing about the details of my first

With Arundhati and Anmol in the
Doll's Museum

partnership I'd like to explain how the both of us ended up as partners. 

Shriya had just organised our first workshop on coinage and provided us with the task of writing a report on the coins we had observed during the workshop. The results were announced and guess what? I had FAILED the task. Yes, FAILED. Not lost the task, FAILED the task. Also, I wasn't the only one FAILING the task, there were others and one amongst them had been her. It was then that the task for the ones who had just FAILED was provided and partners assigned. A tragic start to the beautiful, wonderful, awe-inspiring, totally better than Rakshanda and Vedant's, bond we share now. 

A barch of Dolls from the Museum

The Doll museum task - Entering a doll museum for any girl-young or old, would be similar to entering heaven with angels all around. Something similar yet way more sophisticated could be felt by me and my partner in crime (not literally but for all essences and purposes) Anmol Chacko. The International Doll museum Chandigarh, our destination, was reached with great difficulty, trust me when I say “some things are too obvious to even notice”. We were both nervous as well as excited, and why wouldn't we be, it was the first PARTNERSHIP TASK of Speaking Archaeologically! The city was then new and so was the whole deal about Desk Archaeology, then adding on to a partner task could have turned things utterly ugly if it wasn't for Anmol (THE ULTIMATE DREAM PARTNER!). 

The Museum was filled with hundreds of dolls, depicting various

Wayang Art Dolls from Indonesia

traditions and regions. There were dolls dressed in traditional wedding dresses of different regions of India, dolls from different countries as well. The colours, the elegance, the aura of the museum was rejuvenating. According to the task we were supposed to pick up a single doll from the museum ( Imagine the stress we experienced to pick just ONE doll !), and write an archaeological report about it. We had so many beautiful figurines all around, some even depicting the all time favourite classic fairy tales too. If it were for any normal partnership (re: Everyone else but us) the selection could have been very obvious, a pretty attractive figure. However US being US, roamed all around without any success. All of a sudden, we were pulled back like a magnet to this particular doll, it was a puppet to be very particular. Slim silhouette, a dark face with wild expression, rage filled in eyes, purely devastating it was. That was it, that was the topic. I looked at Anmol, and she nodded, just nodded, there it was, our first task. 

The doll or more accurately the puppet was from Indonesia, and was used in Wayang art i.e the traditional shadow puppetry art form of Indonesia. The job of researching was not done with ease, not much was available to use but the hard work turned out well.

One major problem that we faced was we couldn't meet as often as was needed, thanks to my warden then, who simply wouldn't let me out of the hostel(sighs).To overcome it we used best that we had - video calling. Trust me she looks beautiful even on that small almost blurred screen (OMG Athira, no more). Technology had never been so dear to me. It took us so long to research that we were just left with one day to actually type the whole essay. This is the point where most of us go crazy, lose our calm and do nothing, not the case when you have such great support with you. We drove to Anmol’s house where her Mum prepared some amazing lunch for us while her Dad added some freshly ground spices to it.

It never felt like the first time, it was so comfortable, that's the thing about a really good partner, you can be working for the very first time and yet you can feel free to be yourself. We tried completing the essay and it was so much fun, because honestly we talked about everything except the topic. It never occurred to me as if I was the little nobody in that task, while writing down the essay she asked me before adding anything and everything. Shadow puppetry turned out to be even more exciting than it seemed when we drew its relations to India as well!

The first task ended in the best way. Winning the task aside, the thing of greater importance was the bond that was formed, the experiences we shared. Personally, it will always be close to my heart because this partnership introduced me to this one person I'll always look upto as my inspiration, this one person who is not just a random senior but a source of constant support, admiration and love. The ending of the task was the beginning of a new phase of life that we would cherish forever and always.