#100sareepact
75/100
A beautiful Tussar with Kantha work on the border and pallu which I bought from Gaurisaraiya on Shakespeare Sharani maybe about 8 years ago . The silk is so soft yet so strong that even after wearing it the whole day there is not one crease on it . Not even after 9 hours of a busy Friday packed with end of the week “busyness ”
After a morning at my desk and Friday lunch with the team it was time to head to Peninsula Corporate Park for an Awareness Lecture I was slated to give at one of the offices there .
Lower Parel in Bombay has forever been the home of countless textile mills that were once the heart and soul of the city , I began my work in Cancer awareness right here in the late 80s giving countless talks and conducting Tobacco Cessation workshops for the mill workers . Suddenly , insidiously the topography and skyline of this dense part of Central Bombay has changed before our bewildered eyes . Out of seemingly nowhere have come these glass and chrome and steel edifices in place of the chimneys that used to reach up into the skies of the city giving Amchi Mumbai its unique character .
It was a strange , almost unnerving feeling ; a kind of déjà vu . As I entered the gleaming , glittering Corporate Park my mind’s eye only saw the old , rambling mills with their tall chimneys and deep cavernous interiors where the workers would line up to listen to the Cancer wali Madam .
Cut to today , thanks to Gauri Singh for putting me in touch with Leela Lobo of CEB talent assessment solutions – they offer scientific assessment tools, and consulting services to help organisations assess, select and develop the right people for the right roles. A group of bright , young professionals who wanted the latest on cancer information ; risk factors , causative factors , access to preventive measures and early detection . An intelligent and receptive audience I was able to engage most easily . Lecture over and then it was time for some Q&A . Later on it was inevitable that , while on the subject of the power of Social Media in creating awareness , the #100sareepact surfaced . There was one young man who knew about our pact . Then Leela and her friends so sportingly posed for and took pictures for the pact , they loved my Saree and some of the pact facts I shared with them . And then it was time to go and run the Friday evening errand in Bandra’s American Exoress Bakery . The must buy weekend whole wheat loaf for husband and the mandatory Coffee and Croissant with Dr JWV . The Saree Pact seems to have found another devoted photographer in the good doctor too who had the time of his life clicking away as I picked the stuff I wanted from the legendary old bakery which is our regular Adda