3/100 ‪#‎100sareepact‬‬ A significant part of my childhood was spent in Madhya Pradesh, the heart of India. Is it even possible to describe the antiquity, beauty and mystery of the place? The forests, the cities, the architecture -Indore and Gwalior, Orchha and Datia, Shivpuri, and of course, the impossibly romantic fortress kingdom of Mandu. Like typical fauji families we went on picnic after picnic into the countryside. Mandu those days, was a deserted, unkempt wilderness, simply singing its stories and legends into the wind. On full moon nights we would spread our mats on rough grass and eat our dinner gazing at those magical ruins. I fell in love with the legend of Roopmati and Baz Bahadur, and their doomed love story, and read it again and again, flipping through images of miniature paintings that showed Roopmati in gauzy fabrics. Years later, I inherited two of the most exquisite saris from an aunt. Pale eau-de-nil with a huge silver border, and ivory, with a similar border. She did not want them, because they were cotton! They were old Chanderis, light as spun air. I wore the exquisite creations to death. Trying to replace them was impossible, and I kept dreaming of a day when someone would re-create them. I roamed around the bazzar in Sagar town, and picked up a couple of pretty ones, but they could not match the old ones. These pure cotton saris were woven for centuries in a town just 500 km away from Mandu, and the fabric was cherished by royalty. The Maharani of Baroda was said to have been able to tell a 200 counts sari by just rubbing its softness against her cheek. My inherited Chanderis were long gone when Sanjay Garg arrived with his magical Raw mango creations. Soft, translucent and shimmering like a Madhya Pradesh summer night, they are dream saris. This one is ivory, woven right through with gold mogras, contrasted with a strong red. The scent of jasmine seems to rise from its folds, and if I get carried away describing it as delicate and cool as moonlight, that’s what a Chanderi does to you . Apart from a pair of enormous balis, it does not need any ornament. I draped it for no occasion at all – I just wanted to be transported to Mandu, and another world of beauty. Chanderis are my fantasy saris.