The Saree Affair
I grew up in a typical Bengali household where I used to see my mother, my aunts, my cousins and women around in markets and shops in sarees all day. They would work in a saree, walk in a saree, cook in a saree and each of them would carry their saree beautifully. I never had any fascination towards saree and I would think it is such a waste to wrap that long piece of cloth and even more than that it would scare me to believe that I could even walk in it, leave alone staying in it for hours.
Life went on and I never wore a saree until I came to London for my higher studies. Somehow saree made me feel close to home and I started my own journey into the world of sarees. I was fascinated, completely and madly in love with sarees. My mad love lead me to a strange search. A search to find that one saree of that one material and that one texture that I could feel comfortable wearing and staying in for hours and hours together. What I really found hard when I started wearing sarees was pleating! I could never ever get my pleats together leave alone getting them even remotely close to perfection. Google was my best friend and I searched all over! I went through perfect techniques to wear a saree videos on YouTube, I read articles on how to wear a saree. Though they all made perfect sense in theory, when it came to actually wearing it, I would still struggle. A lovely lady from US came to my rescue and she handed me a little technique to make pleats and also gave me a little advice. She said, patience is the key! I am an impatient person but over time I could manage my pleats! Not absolutely perfectly, yet, but I can wear a saree by myself.
After getting through the wearing techniques, my search continued for the texture and material and one fine day, I landed on an article in India Today on sarees and designers. I read about a particular type of saree that’s made out of the silk leftovers, called noil. I wrote to the designer and she promptly responded and invited me to her studio. I went to her beautiful studio and I bought my first noil saree. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like wearing it but once I wore it, I couldn’t wait to repeat it! I could travel in public transport wearing this saree, it felt good on my skin and most important of all, I was more than comfortable in staying in it for hours! I loved my first noil saree so much that I couldn’t wait to buy more!
Today, I am a proud owner of 3 noils; two in different shades of blue and one in black. I was the first one to introduce noil saree to the women in my family and also to my friends, who like wearing saree. In all honesty, I do feel that saree in itself makes anyone look beautiful but then I also feel that every one has their own personal material and colour preferences. How I got to knowing mine is through years of trial and error and search and I would say it was surely soul satisfying! I love wearing sarees and I also know a bit more; I know what kind of sarees I love wearing.
I am sending in a pic of mine in my non perfect pleated noil saree.