Presenting my mother Maiji . Who taught me how to wear a Saree and so distinctive and disciplined was the draping technique that not a pleat would be out of place , and not one safety pin needed to keep anything in place . And oh how flat was the stomach for there was no bunching up of any of the material at any place .,, 87 years old and still the same grace and dignity and precision as she stepped down this morning to inaugurate the Water Pandal at a local event in Mylapore , where she stays with my sister Raji. Maiji can make any Saree look like a Queen’s raiment . Regal and elegant . I grew up watching her in her Pattu Podavais during festive days , Lady Hamiltons and Taffetas for parties and always the modest Chinnalampettis at home . The way she starched and wore her cottons was a marvel in itself. And it was nothing short of a ritual , the dipping of the limp six yards of material in the bucket of warm INA starch and spreading the six yards of the sticky Saree on the lawns under the sunny skies . I swear our presswallah took the greatest pride in ironing these into perfect folds of artwork !!! Later I was to find a similarly enthusiastic presswallah in Bombay who tended to my starched beauties with the same pride and devotion !!! I learnt how to drape my Saree from Maiji besides so many other things .. Her energy and her devotion to the job at hand and the way she copes with her Glaucoma ! When she rues the fact that she gave me her Glaucoma as an inherited legacy I tell her it is a small price to pay for everything else she has given me …. Her wit , her wisdom ( I hope) her strength and style …..