Looking through the Saree

Some of the regional Rajastan paintings and my new saree.

After an hour in the local saree shop, the choice of millions of brightly coloured fabrics, and a few measurements, a whole new perspective of India emerged.

Stand up, walk tall, posture is very important in the saree.

The saree is the most versatile and fabulous invention - 8 meters of cloth that manages to wraps itself around you forming one of the most modest and flattering dresses I have ever seen. Next to the Salwaa Kamazee (long top and baggy trousers) the saree is the most common item of clothing worn by women here.

Buying my saree was an adventure in itself. We decided to go to a little local one, deep in the midst of the bazaar. It was so local, that the mans only English was "very fine, very fine" which he used for every piece of cloth I tried on. The women spoke a little more, but mostly we had a game of charades going the whole time. Matt sat back and directed the show! Eventually it was down to 2 and indecisive me could not decide. The "very fine man" thought I should get both, but instead it turned to a vote from the by-standing women, who was watching on with a great big smile and eager to get involved. They all agreed that the one I am wearing in the pics was by far the better fabric.  Once I tried this one one, I wasn't even allowed to look at some of the others, if I did, it was met by screwed up faces and head shaking.

I had a few practices at wrapping it up, whilst the tailor lady re sized my top. One of the bystanders got sick of watching me struggle and came to the rescue, giving me a little whack on the shoulder and nod of approval once I could demonstrate acceptable ability to dress my self.

Chatting to the flower seller in the sun.

Once I finally mastered it and got up the courage to give it a go, I stepped out onto the street that we walked along every day, and the change in the locals and market sellers  was amazing! Instead of shouting to us to buy something, they approached us for a more open and honest chat, some yelled out "looking good miss", "beautiful saree miss", "WOW now your an Indian: come and get some Bindi and henna"! There were nods and smiles of approval from all the Nannas, one nearly fell out her window gawking at me, and admiration in the otherwise normally curious stares. Heads turned to look, and I was pointed out to everyones friends, all kinds of lovely comments found their way to me. Comments varied from " are you going to a wedding?" to "you look like a house wife!!"  And I even caused a motor bike to crash into the back of a car as the car full of women slowed down suddenly to have a gawk and shake my hand!! In our street I became known as the saree girl and when I didn't wear my saree one day because we were going for a bike ride they all wanted to know why! Saree wearing is one great big confidence booster!

The best bit was when some of the women stopped for a photo or a chat and then gave me a tip on how to improve my look. One Nanna did some charades that suggested I should stop wearing my western sunnies and made me cover my hair with the shawl part, a mum fixed up the shoulder part and gave me a pin to clasp it in place (tricks of the trade). I even got up the confidence to practice the little Hindi I picked up and they LOVED it and even understood!!

Saree wearing is a great way to break the ice on arrival in a new city and the hotel guy's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he did a double take and nearly fell over, hung up his phone call, and then nearly fell over again!.

The saree opening up the conversation and getting approval from the local women
(PS, you're not meant to smile in photo's in India, but i couldn't help it!

 Matt loved it too, cos it meant he did not need to sneak close up photos of the women any more! and no one talked to him, the "rickshaw sir?" turned into "rickshaw maam?"  so he got a good break (its usually the men who are approached first).

Now my favorite sport is saree spotting and learning new and faster ways to do up my saree. Once I have perfected that the next challenge will be mastering the art of carrying big heavy loads on top of my little head!