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.
\nI 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n