Sarees for me evoke childhood. As you can see from the pictures, my tryst with the saree began quite early. The first picture is me at age 7. The occasion is Diwali. All through my early childhood years in Mumbai on any occasion or festival I wanted to play dress-up, of course in a saree! I grew up in a Gujarati neighbourhood in Walkeshwar and as was tradition during Diwali, friends and neighbours would start dropping in at home from as early as 6 a.m. to wish us “Saal Mubarak!”. Every year on this day day me and my younger brother would be woken up by my mom at 5 a.m. to the melodious strains of Bismillah Khan on the shehnai filling the house which my dad would start playing on the long playing record first thing in the morning during Diwali. Then would follow the customary Diwali bath with the Maharashtrian “utna” which is fragrant paste/powder after which I would insist on my mom dressing me up in a grand saree, complete with all the accessories including my hair being put up like all the “grown-ups”. My poor mom would have to do all this and have me completely ready by 6 a.m. besides getting herself ready and have all her chores done before then. ( I have had quite an easy time as a parent, having only a son! :P) I can’t quite recall at what age this began but it goes back as far back as I can recall and I remember my mother folding her saree almost double to fit my tiny height then. This tradition of Diwali sarees continued for years and from the time I was about 16 my dad (who has impeccable taste in sarees and a great eye for picking them) started buying me my own new saree to wear for Diwali rather than having to wear mom’s. This practice has continued over the years and even today every year my Dad buys me a new saree for Diwali and most of my gorgeous saree collection consists of these Diwali sarees collected over the years.
The pictures are all in black and white, but this one from what I recall was a deep rich ultramarine blue silk with a deep orangey yellow sari border. The length of the blouse sleeves in vogue then is back to being the current trend 🙂
The other two pictures on the right are me at age 14 dressed up for school plays. The one on top is for a play on the annual school prize day (the pic was taken at the prize distribution rather than the play). The saree is red Dhaka Calcutta cotton with off white motifs draped in a Bengali drape. The one below is also for a school play in a drama competition at Mani Bhavan with me wearing my mom’s lovely kanjeevaram in a Gujarati drape. The saree coincidentally was bought in Bangalore and is an off white kanjeevaram silk with a lovely maroon border with zari. It’s a saree I still love and may be it’s time to look for it in Mom’s cupboard on my next trip home (if she hasn’t already given it away to someone, which knowing my mom she most likely has) 🙂
This childhood saree-wearing turned out run in families as you will see from the other picture which is a photo of my cousin Sonal (who is like a little sister to me) wearing a saree at the ripe old age of just 2 showing us how shy coy brides pose. :D. This one is one for the books because Sonal was otherwise such a tomboy who would spend most of her time in my younger brother’s old shirts which would hang on her almost upto her ankles because she wanted to look just like her “Dada” :). The story, Sonal, is yours to tell. 😀
Biraj
