#sareespeak #womenofsareespeak

#178 #SS 23/2022

#silk #kanjivaram #kanjivaramsilk

When I got husband to click my shots, the conversation went somewhat like this :
Me – please please please take my photo ah.
A side note – Malaysians utter words in threes, it’s as if to place emphasis on the intended action 😎.
He – we’ll take it when we come home.
Me – no no no! Take now la! I’ll look like Chandramukhi by the time I get home.
Side note again – we add la to soften the command or situation.
He – ok. Where do you want to sit?
Me. Scurrying around my living room looking for a different seat to sit on. The Outdoors being too cold and misty and the stairs quite damp. Finally settled down on a much photographed wooden chair.
He – moving back, bending knees to ensure he captures ALL of bountiful me in the photo. Seats himself on jute stool and proceeds to click but before that as with most males of my era who I believe aspire to have death wishes on their heads,
He – Same Saree?
Trails off as he notes my indignant expression, clearer than ever, through the camera lens.
Me – So what? I love this Saree. So many beautiful memories la. And I waxed lyrical about our wedding reception in late December 1991 when I’d first draped it. I’d had my hair up in a stylishly messy bun with purple pink flowers.
Will look for a photo and post in comments.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, he clicked some standing and sitting shots.
And his comment got me thinking.
About #Irepeatmysarees
And #nationalhandloomday (India)
Yes I do drape the same sarees.
Yes I do look for the same sarees, that get me comfortable.
I love the fabric, the flow, the emotion attached to the Saree.
Each time the experience is different, I sometimes get noticed and complimented, sometimes not.
But, always,
Some new memory gets attached to a Saree fold pleat, a little of the pallu, a gold thread, an mm of border.
When I’d first draped it, I was a young bride, bright eyed and bushy tailed, with hopes, dreams of a wonderful life ahead, and those hopes and dreams changed, sometimes got lost, improved, reimagined, reworked over the years.
Years later at other weddings, important events, I tend to reminisce about my first drape of this beauty and subsequent drapes and as I do so, more memories attach themselves to the intertwining of the warps and wefts.
And just like this, at 16, I’d draped Mum’s wondrous mystical Benarasi silk wedding Saree in Ramar Patchai and vermillion borders and pallu with peacocks and swans strutting on the pallu.
For dance performances, whenever I took on the role of Aandaal. I remember feeling I was the young saint, swaying to MS Amma’s (MS Subbulakshmi) rendition of Shri Rangapura Vihaara. And in the same Saree, I’d been a Goddess in a temple in a Ramayana dance drama, wherein Seetha and her friends had come to worship, before the Swayamvara.
I may have digressed, as I am wont to do.
All I need to stress is that we should never underestimate the power of draping, redraping this beautiful garment, which has the ability to create, recreate, sustain and muster up beautiful experiences and memories.
So the next times someone says “same Saree”,
Either retort or Just smile knowing what a blessing it is to redrape such treasures.
As as I couldn’t drape a handloom on National Handloom Day, here is my contribution –
A 30+ year old Kanjivaram silk Handloom treasure in bright purple, with gold Veldhari stripes on the body, with pink and gold borders and pallu, with flowers and mangoes on the borders and pallu and additional tear drop like gold buttis along the borders. Draped for a wedding of a bright eyed bushy tailed young couple on Saturday morning.