64/100. It’s that time of year again when even the most cynical of Bengalis will get struck by Pujo fever. This is the time for indulging our Bangaliana (loosely translates as Bongness). And that means an abundance of maachh, mishti and more!

The Bengalis’ love of fish needs no elaboration. Though I am one of those very few Bongs who are – blasphemy alert – happier without a piece of fish on their plate, I wholeheartedly share the Bengalis’ love for fish motifs. Which is what you see in this saree.

But the saree didn’t come with the fish. When I bought it five Pujas ago, it was a beautifully simple Bengal handloom in a strange yellowish moss-green with soft orange ridges all along, a narrow border in darker green and black in a herringbone pattern, and a pallu in green and black when I went home with my purchase and unfolded the saree, everyone at home went ooh and aah! Wanting to investigate the cause of the excitement, my then three-years-something son Ra up to us, cocked his head and assessed the saree and asked, “Eta Ki? Notun podda? And when we questioned him again because we did not understand what he was saying, he asked, “New curtains?” With a soft, babytalk ‘t’.

As everyone else fell about laughing and cracking irritating jokes along the lines of the emperor’s new clothes, I resigned myself to the fact that this saree needed a little more work.
I headed off to my go-to, my one and only – Kanishka, a design house legendary for its block prints – with the brat. It was he who chose the fish motif, though he actually wanted the river waves and the sun as well ainted on – much like his own scribblings.

We struck a deal and he magnanimously stopped at just the fish. Fitting blouse issues have not allowed me to wear this saree as often as I wanted to, but this saree has never failed to get me compliments the very few times I have worn it.

This was true this day as well. I wore it to work and these pictures were clicked when the cool autumn breeze called us outdoors.