15th March 2014 – a very bittersweet day in my life. That was the day I graduated from Mount Carmel College. A day I had been eagerly waiting for for 5 years, but also a day that I was dreading because it meant moving on from the known comforts.
The dress code was either white or blue sarees. I went off in a tizzy looking in Nalli’s, Neeru’s and Fab India for the perfect saree. Until I realised that I had Mummy’s saree in the closet all along! It was slightly off-white, but it would do. It has a green pallu on one end and a maroon one on the other, but I’m more partial to draping it with the maroon pallu on display.
Now that my saree was sorted, I needed a blouse. The sleeveless golden blouse that I had gotten stitched in 4 days (after spending a fortune, from a student’s perspective at least) just did not fit well. There was just not enough time to deal with the hassle of getting yet another blouse stitched, so online shopping came to the rescue! Nani and I got the measuring tape out and took the most accurate measurements that we could to compare with those listed on the website. Spent another fortune on a sleeveless blouse from a website based on those measurements and 4 photographs, and prayed that this would work out. It did. And when Ajji saw it, she realised that the price of the blouses these days is inversely proportional to the amount of fabric used to make them.
Accessories – the red silk clutch was an impulsive purchase from Mother Earth. Earrings (probably not visible in this photo) were Mummy’s. The manicure was a well deserved gift from a friend’s sister.
And the most precious memory of all associated with this outfit – the few hours we took to get dressed together at a friend’s house. Doing each other’s makeup and last minute saree adjustments. And the photo shoot that followed that nearly made us late for our own graduation!