#sareespeak #womenofsareespeak #107
#SS 37/2021 #cotton #kantha
Let’s talk about photography.
I have this simple concept.
If I like what I see, then everyone else will.
I suppose that’s what we should aim for. Some amount of self love, self confidence.
Easy for you to say mum, the girls retort.
Yes, that’s because I have a condition known as opposite-of-anorexia. Akin to narcissism.
My condition is somewhat like this.
I slap on my powder, pottu, lipstick, slap down my daughter-insists-I-am-balding hair, grab the nearest matching cardigan and scarf/shawl, look for my work and personal phone, handbag, laptop satchel, pray, dash out the door.
Quite pleased with myself, as I’d said goodbye to a somewhat colourful, pleasant looking woman that morning in the mirror.
At the lights, I pull down the car mirror.
White streaks across cheeks, necks. Grab end of scarf, rub frantically.
A semblance of normalcy.
Truly believe am work-ready.
Similarly, some Fridays I go out with the girls, a movie, dinner or some shopping. Let me rephrase that. They shop, I hold bags, get called into changing rooms amid cries of ‘I’m never going to have that pasta again’. Then, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and I gasp with horror. Grey parting, messy hair, food bump, not the picture I have in my mind. There are times I’ve looked at clothes on the mannequin, and tried them out in the changerooms. No, you don’t want to know what transpired.
So coming back to photography, I see some amazing clicks on Saree Speak. The sakhi’s face, saree, stands out clearly against the somewhat hazy background, saree colours are vivid, almost like a 3D snap.
So I ask my girls. Please capture my closeup. Make me look good.
And they click, and snap (literally) and click. And they send the photos to my cracked-screen-hand-me-down android from their state of the art iPhones, each one claiming the other has a better camera or that they are running out of storage.
And I get a purplish photo, or a shot with my massive shocked face, squinting, or me caught in mid saree adjustment.
I suggest a filter, some sunshine or haze behind me. They stare at me as if I have lost my marbles.
‘Don’t ever do that!’
‘Everyone will know!’ ‘
And they won’t ever trust you again!’
Well well well. Look who’s talking.
Quite honest young women, I must say.
Must’ve done something right after all.
Draped a kantha cotton silk lilac saree with green and gold borders and pallu. Body has embroidered diamond buttis of gold and green.
And now,
Opposite-of-anorexic, narcissistic me, will post the purplish photo and no-filter non 3D click.
And sigh,
will nail the perfect or perfectly imperfect shot some other time..
Bavani’s Happy Place 