Once you commit to the #100sareepact you suddenly realise that there are so many opportunities in one’s life to wear a sari! Last week I wore this off-white chanderi with an intricate black thread border to a magical Sufi evening, organised by two non-profits CIEDS/Vimochana and Pipal Tree.

And in order to tell the story of this sari I have to let the cat out of the bag and share that apart from my big smile I also own a lightning fast temper! And even though I have mellowed a lot over the years, lets just say that when I was 23 or 24 I needed very little gun powder to ignite! 

So on one such occasion I got really upset with my parents and decided to leave the house (one of my special skills)! I had no where to go but the other thing I don’t lack and definitely didn’t lack at that age was gumption! So out I went with my bags, books, a big-fat desktop computer (thankfully didn’t have a cat at the time) and landed up living for a few weeks with two wonderful people – A couple, Gayathri and Jaideep Kalia, both IAS officers, who I had done some work for and had come to adore! While I thought I had got rid of my parents for good, I realised later that G & J had made a secret pact with my parents over the phone!

I think it was because I would swoon over Gayathri’s saris every morning when she would dress to go to work that she one day gave me one of her saris and said ‘This one is for you’! I have never worn this sari but have treasured it like a good memory and thought of G & J often. They were like an elder brother and sister to me and I learnt so many good things during the time I spent with them. So its a pity that for no plausible reason I have lost touch with these two angels over the years!  And no amount of Google, Linked-in and Fb searches have helped me find them. But now that I have shared this story maybe I will find them again….!  ‘This kid has grown up’, you’d say!