I remember when I was moving to Bangalore in 1999 I had thought of how romantic it would be living in the South of India after a hectic pace in Bombay, made almost frantic with working in television news.
I dreamed of hearing Carnatic music coming from homes, the tinkling of bells on the feet and the smell of jasmine flowers that women wore in their hair.
It was also the first time since I was a teenager that I wouldn’t be working so I imagined I would actually be doing all that, learning carnatic music – I love to sing, wearing pails on my ankles and flowers in my hair, just relaxing and channeling all that is feminine.
Ya, right ! This is ME we are talking about !
Also, it seems I hadn’t moved far south enough. This Bangalore ( and I moved into a condominium ) was full of IT geeks discussing java scripts, HTML, and wooing every .com they could.
Apparently Malleshwaram as my friend Madhu Nataraj Kiran describes it, “is the cosmic centre of the whole world” and I lived far away from it. Madhu, why didn’t I meet you then ?
My sabbatical from work was spent trying to dodge invites to join kitty parties and run charity organisations. Bangalore had very few work opportunities for me since only Delhi and Bombay lent themselves to newsworthiness being financial, entertainment and political capitals.
In a frustrated mood one day, I headed out for some aimless retail therapy. No agenda what so ever. I still had plenty of almost new and some unworn sarees from my trousseau and wasn’t looking to buy anymore. Till I sighted this one.
# 84 is a repeat on the pact. A Kanchi cotton silk, purple shot with black and small peacock bootis woven with zari.
A simple saree that one can dress up for an occasion or dress cool for a day in office. I’ve worn it to lunches, just like that, work and it is the first saree I bought in the “South”. It has seen me through many phases. Boredom, frustration like I described, but also mother hood, redefining myself, learning the digital medium because I had worked in analogue till then, growing with experience and fulfilment at work.
It reminds me of second chances.
It reminds me of my journey in the past sixteen years. I’ve come a long way.
They say you should never look back, but I believe if you don’t see how far you have come, how will you measure how much you have grown ?
I love the saree, it remains one of my favourites. Went over to meet a friend at a store and found these lovely stained glass butterflies hanging there and one of them matched my colours.
‪ ‪#‎100sareepact‬ saree #84