My love affair with sarees

The first time I wore a saree was in the 10th Std. It was our farewell party and all of us 10th graders were supposed to be in fancy dress. Having put off thinking of any creative costumes until the last minute, I found I was too late to do anything much and my mom suggested I go as an air-hostess. Off I went, clutching Amma's vanity case and carefully wrapped in a beautiful blue silk saree. I skipped the paavadai-davani/half-saree stage completely since at the time, I used to find that particular outfit very unappealing. Looking back now, I wonder why - so many girls who wear it today look so graceful and lovely. Perhaps there are trendier and more eye-catching designs available now which was not the case 2 decades ago.

The rest of my school and college years, sarees were meant for tripping in delicately, at weddings, parties and other social dos. Chennai and Mumbai (where I worked for a year) were too hot and humid for a saree to feel like anything less than a sticky cumbersome burden. My role model was (and still is) a senior VP at the investment bank where I worked in Mumbai. A 40-something lady, she was always to be found in stunning Kanjeevarams. What was more astonishing was that she carried them with such careless grace and elan that she took the focus away from the elaborate fabric and borders, onto her vibrant personality. Truly a natural style icon!

Role model or not, things stayed much the same on the sartorial front for me and the beautiful Kanjeevarams that I collected during my wedding stayed inside the saree bags until 2003, when I started working in Bangalore, in an IT and BPO company.

Suddenly, I was enamored with sarees. Working in a new-age tech company where the average age was 22, and jeans de rigueur , I often felt curious eyes upon me as I stuck to my resolution of wearing a saree atleast once or twice a week to the office. With every day that I draped myself in it, my confidence in spending the whole day in it grew - I was walking around visiting slums and schools, and jumping in and out of autos and other vehicles. All was well until Ads came into my life; the thought of spit-ups and food stains was too much to bear and as he grew older, I was guaranteed to look crushed and messy anytime I went anywhere with him! 

Cut to 2011 when I started working with craftsmen in Delhi and beyond. I was mesmerised by our hoary traditions of weaves, textures and embroidery and my lust for heritage creations only grew. The fact that I was working in an all-women office also helped, as did the fact that one was able to buy sarees directly from weavers at a discount :) In the process, I also became something of a handloom Nazi, and today I refuse to buy power loom stuff even though handloom is so much more expensive. 

Today, my wardrobe is filled with Chanderis, Banaras, Kanjeevaram, Pochampalli, Paithani, Uppada, Kantha, Phulia and Tussar. I'm eyeing my next buys - Ilkal and Gujarati Patola. Aren't these names so evocative? My love affair with sarees is intrinsically linked with my love for Indian heritage crafts.

I have been wearing a saree atleast once a week to the office. Yes it's not easy. Making the saree a regular part of the work-wear or daily-wear takes time, effort and patience. From making those trips to the tailor and getting that blouse stitched just so, having the right petticoats and if you are like me, not bearing to fling it off at the end of the day but air it before folding, to giving yourself time to drape it properly......it is so much handier to pick out a smart ready-made kurta and leggings and get going on a rushed morning.
But I've found it worthwhile to consciously slow down and factoring that extra 10 minutes to change isn't that hard. It has been more than amusing to see the change in people's behaviour when I land up in a saree as opposed to a salwar kameez or a top and trousers. Folks are more respectful. I seem to exude new authority and maturity. Men whom one least expects to be chivalrous, leap up to open doors for me. Security guards who stop me from parking in a particular place, respectfully and smilingly explain why, instead of dismissing me outright.
Plus, most important, I get tons of compliments!

Oh and did I mention it beautifully camouflages all the extra weight that comes from too much eating and not enough exercise!!!

Summer is here

Posted this on fb today :)
You know the holidays are round the corner when crafty items begin appearing at home, when your mom calls with an urgent request for empty cereal boxes, tins and bottles, and when various Gods begin sportiing beady accoutrements.

Another Bee-themed activity - a bumblebee costume

What? I have to come up with a homemade bee costume? What the $%!!!**&*!!!

I cribbed all the way to the stationery store, and spent the better part of last weekend designing and executing this project. As it happens, bees are easy to do and this is what I did.

Take 1 black t-shirt. Ads has an old one that I have been meaning to dump for a long time. But he loves it and wouldn't allow me to; fortunately he agreed to sacrifice the T-shirt for a greater cause :) 

I covered the pattern at the front of the t-shirt by pasting a sheet of paper (painted black) over it. Then I cut out and pasted strips of yellow chart paper all over the body.

For the wings, I took a wire hanger (one of those you get back from the drycleaners and which are very pliable) and twisted it so that it could be hooked over the top of the t-shirt, at the back. I cut 4 wings out of white chart paper and attached it with tape, to the hanger. I used markers to make the wings look more 'realistic'.

 The antennae were made using a girl's black head-band. Ads loudly protested that he would "not wear a girl's band" but came around after I explained that I could not think of any other way to have him wear the antennae.

Since he was taking the bus to school, I gave the wings and antennae to him in a bag. He would attach both to his costume just before he went up to talk.

We made the lil fella pose in the complete costume before he set off. We found the wings were a little limp. Next time I have to create wings I need to give them a cardboard backing for extra stiffness.

Next semester they are learning about tigers. Help!

BEE craft

This one was a slapdash affair. Ads was asked to make some craft related to the bee, since they are learning about bees in school now. I wanted something that involved some basic gluing and sticking since Ads would be doing most of the work and his fine motor skills go for a toss when it comes to cutting and pasting :)

So this is what I came up with. One clean and empty plastic Mother Dairy kulfi cone :)

 Cut out a circle, draw a smiley face and paste it on the open end of the plastic cone.

Envelop it with strips of yellow and black paper. I didn't have yellow paper so I gave a white sheet to Y and she happily lathered it with yellow poster paint.

Cut out wings from the yellow paper and stick to the 'back' of the bee. Add antennae and one bumblebee's ready for submission :)

Crafty hours

I try to do some craft with the kids every week - but there are times when weeks go by without us working on something together, and I don't like that. We seem to get out a lot during the weekends and in addition, these two days of the week are the only time S gets to spend with the kids. I am left with the weekdays when it is hard to schedule anything between tennis lessons and homework and playtime.When S travels and is out over the weekend, that's when we are able to do crafty-artsy stuff together and this weekend was one of those.

It actually started with Y's school teacher sending me a note informing me that the end of the year class party was going to have a 'Garden' theme and Y needed to come to school in a homemade costume. I figured a flower was the easiest thing I could rustle up with the stuff I already had at home. I used thick card stock (I had pink), cut them into petal shapes, glued them together onto a green band of chart paper and decorated the 'petals' with floral patterns (bought from my absolute favourite shop in the whole wide world - Michael's!). Y wore a green t-shirt and leggings and I pasted 2 green leaves onto the front of her t-shirt. The 'flower' was turned into a crown to wear on top of her head. I didn't like to make petals framing the whole face because I think that's too uncomfortable for a small kid to have stuck to her face for several hours.

This is the floral 'crown'.

I don't suppose she looked terribly like a flower but I guess the basic idea was communicated :)

Yesterday, Ads had his end-of-year PTM and we wanted to give his teacher a small gift. Of course, it had to be handmade. I had a couple of glass bottles (in which we get scented candles?) with me. I got him to stick strips of glaze and crepe paper and decorate it with a bead bracelet. We placed a tiny scented candle inside, and packed it in a pretty bag.

Today, we've done Tape-resist painting which is very easy and a whole lot of fun! I have been meaning to do this for months ever since I read Rashmie's post over here. Ads and Y loved yanking the yellow tape out once  they had finished their artwork :)

This one is done jointly by Y and me.

And this one by Ads, a mixture of superheroes and abstract doodlings :)

A batch of shells and pebbles picked up from NZ beaches were painted.

And, finally, a really cool project - to make cute plastic lanterns from mineral water bottles. I saw this on Mindful Meanderings recently and it really appealed to me. We didn't use glass colours but regular acrylic ones. I cut open two bottles and gave 2 pieces each to Ads and Y. Later I added some beads from a couple of broken anklets we had lying around, and voila!