Indian Women and saree are so well connected we know that and this pact has proven it again,
I was just curious to find out how much a saree means to an Indian Man. We know when a saree is gifted to a woman by a man then she means so much in his life. Mother, sisters, aunts, grannies, wife, daughters, daughter in laws, granddaughter and nowadays best friends are the special ones who get this honor. In some customs giving a saree to a girl means you are bringing her to your home as your wife, even the mangalsutra is a secondary ritual of marriage there.
Men celebrate their first salary not by getting anything for themselves but by getting saree for his mom. The pride a son carries when his mom wears the saree earned by him is no match an expression to be found elsewhere. Ask a proud husband how he feels for the first saree he gifted to his wife. Ask how a brother feels when he sees her sister wearing a saree, makes him realize that his little sister has grown up so big, that too if it is gifted by him them then the zeal knows no bound. A father has his eyes moist when he sees his little girl clad in a saree, yes my father cried the first time I wore saree. They were happy tears as well as the fear of realizing that his little daughter is no more a little girl. One of my best friend had gifted me a saree for his marriage, in his reception I was sitting among hundreds of gorgeously dressed women thinking how will I get a change to go and meet the bride and groom and wish them, he caught me, eye to eye and said the saree was so nice on me. Here saree strengthened the friendship in us.
With this feel I went around asking men in my personal and social circle, what they feel about saree, about their favorite women around who wear it; here it is compiled for my fellow pact readers.
• Saree is so close to my heart, where ever I see it I am reminded of my mom and wife.
• Saree reminds me a tradition and ancient wisdom; it reminds me a wise old women too. (I am sure that the person would have had a picture of his granny running in his mind while telling this to me)
• Saree gives me various emotions, it depends on the person wearing it, my mom’s saree was a towel to me, my lecturer’s saree was a mark of respect, my wife’s saree and helping her drape it is a symbol of love, granny’s saree is divine to me. Saree makes me respect women for one another reason.
• A saree gives completeness to women by adding more beautify to her.
o Mother’s Saree: Her saree smell is the one which given a belief that She’s there for us forever on those days when we just born into this world.
o Granny/Mother’s saree: gave us comfortable cradles.
o Sister’s Saree: we feel happy while seeing them in sarees not only because they look beautiful in it, we feel more happy/proud when they wear the sarees which we gifted them.
o Teacher’s Saree : I think there are few professions known for wearing sarees like Air hostess, Receptionists and Teachers. I had a lecturer in my college days and I never seen her repeating her saree again.
• There are few things in this world that we wouldn’t have specific reasons to love them but still, we love and feel happy with them. SAREE is one among it. It is an identification for Indian Women. No other dress gives a respect/beauty like saree. It is deeply associated with our culture and each and every custom of Hindu tradition. Starting from birth to death, saree plays a very important a role in all our customs.
After collecting these thoughts I released even more how much it means to our men. Sometimes they might jocularly tease us for our madness to shop or the time we spend to get good saree, but inside their inner heart they are so happy when they buy it for us. In fact my best of sarees are the one selected by my dear men around, my brother, my husband, my FIL or my father. They make the selection so easy and make us take the right decision just the way they help us in every walk of life. Who said men are not emotional they just don’t express it like we do.
With this post comes a pic taken so many moons back in which I am wearing a saree got by my dear Anna in his first salary, that time I dint know how to clad it properly also still this pic is so special to me. I am sure that this piece will stay in my wardrobe weather i will be able to wear it or not.