Last night, we were invited round for dinner at the Lambas. My friend, Romi opened the front door to greet us.

“Omigosh, you are incredibly punctual!” he said, “and by the way it’s Sunday!”

Did I miss something? Had we gotten the day wrong?

“No no,” his wife, Sagiri interjected, “what he means is…why are you so dressed up? On Sunday you’re supposed to wear jeans.”

“Wait, I think maybe you are wearing jeans?” Romi’s mother, Kamlesh asked, catching a glimpse of brown trouser leg from behind the pleats of my Satya Paul attire.

Not jeans but a ‘trouser-saree,’ definitely an untraditional application of the wrap.

My mother, Veena Malhotra, invented the trouser-saree one November several years ago when faced with the predicament of preparing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in the Thar desert for a bunch of visiting American members of a high-brow business organization. In addition to tandoori turkey and pumpkin halva, their request was to be clad in traditional wear.

Getting the ladies pleated and pinned for the event was not the problem but what would they with the sarees back home in the United States without someone readily at hand to help them? So Mum asked her tailor to stitch a ready-pleated saree to a pair of pre-sized trousers. That way, all they’d need to do was to pull up the pants and throw the pallau over one shoulder. Genius eh?

I have since adopted her concept to wear with one or two of my Satya Paul sarees…their contemporary design lend themselves to the style. I find them particularly useful for business meetings, presentations…and of course, Sunday night dinner at the Lambas!