Post dated Jun28, 2015

Saree theme, this time, is again about friendship from school days.

We studied together from the age of 2+ to grade10. We two used to share the critical challenges we were facing at double digit age and we used to advise each other. We were fan of each other.

She got married (arranged marriage is very common in our country), just after grade 10 exam. She left town. We failed to stay in touch. With time, for me the vacuum got filled up with other loving friends. Much later, when I started working, I searched for her, Orkut came, Facebook came, whatsAp came, I was hopeful.

And yes, this year has been very special. We two reconnected this year, after 27 long years. Within couple of months of reconnecting, as I landed in Mumbai, she and her husband came to receive us at the airport. The joy of such reuniting and non stop chatting for hours, the feeling that those 27 years in between were just a punctuation mark like coma (,), those moments cannot be described with words.

The most awesome bit is that, she has skipped a generation – her child is a 25 year old working lady now:)

Our school uniform was saree from grade 9 onwards, we used to tie our hair in this fashion with ribbons then. We framed this long awaited meet for saree pact.

She draped a Bangalore silk and she gave me a Kolkata Boutique silk to drape from her rich collections. Boutique silk’s border and the ‘pallu’ (the loose end) have been block printed by weavers.

After the photo shoot, the saree became mine, she felt the saree suits me more. It is one of her saree gifts from her father, who is no more among us now. She wanted to share her father’s affection with me. Next, we went and met her mom too, who kept hugging me with tears of joy.

The saree woven by weavers, block printed by artists, sealed with a father’s love for his daughter has got a new chapter etched on it – the moment of celebrations of two childhood friends’ reunion:) Three cheers!