This is perhaps the most precious of posts in the pact for me.
Firmly entwined in the saree I wear, is the love that I have known from the people whose story this is.
As a little girl, I would often look at a particular photograph in an album. A photo of my Nani, my Ma and my Didi, my sister, as a little girl. A black & white that captured the three women perfectly. My sister was wearing a dress in that one.
When my daughter was born, I remembered that photo, and had immediately thought that I’d like to have a photo with my mother and my daughter too. Just like my Ma. Legacy building has always been attractive to my sensibility.
And then, when Miss K was old enough to be photographed thus, my Ma was traveling a lot in the last couple of years. Just before we left for our holiday, I got news of my family coming down from Seoul for a quick visit. It looked like I wouldn’t meet them, (I miss my family so much. And they all live abroad), but just a week before we left, my mother wrote that she would come to Bangalore. This time I was determined. In the middle of mad work schedules and a house full of family from both sides, we all dressed up for a photo session that I had booked on a Sunday, the 3rd of May.
Then the ubiquitous problem that strikes all women at times like these.
What to wear ?
I asked Miss K if she would wear a half saree. And she agreed. Ma’s wardrobe was brought down from the loft for her to choose her saree. She maintains a wardrobe in all our homes across the globe.
And then it was my turn to decide what to wear. I reached for this red, with a rather unusual design with black strips.. Ketav presented this saree, along with three more, for our anniversary this year. Vipra & Pavi helped Deeksha &Ketav, to choose it for me. There wasn’t a fall on the saree, but that was alright. But what to do after cutting the blouse piece ? I didn’t want to ruin the saree with threads hanging and it was a Sunday and I didn’t have anyone to do the tassels on the pallu. My Ma and mother in law knotted the pallu tassels in twenty minutes and we were ready to leave.
And then after a lot of smiling, a lot of posing, a lot of trying to get it right, here we are. The moment captured for posterity.
My mother, her youngest child, and my younger one. Three generations in this photo. Life has been kind for us to stand together in our circle of love.
I stand with the woman who has defined me with her courage and her choices and a young lady I hope to be able to influence to be the best that she wants to be. And hope that she draws strength from the two women in the photo whenever she looks at it.
Nothing more to say. The photograph speaks so many things for me.
Saree #43 #100sareepact