46/100
This one is not my kind of saree. Reason: I hate myself in pink and I dislike machine embroidery. But I’ve held on to this one for it has some special memories attached to it. This was a gift of love.
Yes..fifteen days into my marriage. …it was our first Valentines day together. We were on our way to my husband’s battalion. We stopped over at Delhi for our connecting train to Jamnagar. We came from a small town and were awestruck by the Malls where we had gone to while away time. While I was happily window shopping , hubby had some other plans. He entered one of the saree shops …more readily recognizable now as the Meena Bazaar and spent hardly any time in picking up and paying for this one. When I finally found him he gave me this packet saying ” Happy Valentines Day”. I could hardly protest at that time as we were deeply madly in love especially as it was such a sweet gesture. Although now he is banned from buying anything for me unless he whatsapps me what it is.
I wore it for the first time for a cousin’s wedding in Lucknow. There is also a very funny memory attached to that day. One of my cousins told me to come along to a parlour with her. I followed her and whilst sitting idle I decided to have a haircut myself. He made a mess of my hair. And so my cousin took me to another parlour to get the damage rectified. I ended up with the shortest haircut of my life. We were getting late for the wedding and our mothers were frantically calling us. We reached the venue late but the disapproving look that the husband gave me that day just killed me…I can never forget. I was looking like a tomboy in a pink saree. The bitter memory this one created had also been one of the reasons why this saree never had an outing. It came out today for a Bada Khana function in the unit in which the officers , the soldiers and their families all have dinner together.