One of the earliest-ever photos of me in a saree. This was one of my mother’s wedding sarees, a white banarasi with a broad violet border and pallu and little gold ambis all over. Mom had told me the story of how she was in Chennai on work, staying with a cousin and decided to go shopping for her trousseau. She was done in barely an hour, and one of the sarees she picked was this one.
I have always loved it, and wore it when I was about 9, when we lived in a small but much beloved government flat in Pandara Road. My aunt, Vasanthi Atte, tied it Karnataka style with a ‘banana’ at the waist to remove the necessity for a petticoat.I’m wearing Vasanthi Atte’s ‘kiwi sarpli’ – a pearly string that goes from the earring to be pinned up into the hair and a gold-plated pendant on a black string chain – which she later gifted me.The earrings I’m wearing were gifted to me by Champa Atte, Vasanthi Atte’s sister – this was back when they were still friends and visited us together! Many years later, when we were visiting my uncle’s house in Mysore for my cousin’s wedding, I posed in the same saree for a more ‘glam’ photo.

Sadly the saree started fraying a few years ago, so I had the pallu cut off and framed – it’s hanging in my parents’ house even now.