Saturday, 28 January 2017

WOMEN’S CHOICE: THE SAREE


Mohan Kothekar
Writer and Blogger


In the modern epoch, where fashion transmute every moment, as fashion is an integral part of the life, uttering a single word against ‘SAREE’ is considered as a punishable misdeed against liberty and sovereignty of Indian ladies; women’s lib will agitate and make your life miserable – mind well your adversary and permanent opponent, the spouse, will lead the agitation.  One of the most offbeat attire of a modern woman is undoubtedly the sari.  In the Indian subcontinent the saree - NATIONAL ATTIRE - is a delicate, discreet, fragile, subtle, special and tender issue for ladies, notwithstanding, the whole Indian bastion especially the husbands are awful and deadly contravene to it.  Screen any Indian crowded street; it is the open challenge that no one will notice any two ladies draping saree having same print, design, colour, texture and what not.  With the passing days, the ultra modern educated eve has radical divergent views and ever in search of matchless ardent saree; how the manufacturer is coping up with the exaction is a guarded secret.  Like-minded feminine friends while gossiping transpire the top secret – the whole lot planned the excursion, in colloquial language - shopping, with the better half as cashier and or a baby sitter. 

           

In a predicament husband gets dragged for her beloved feminine garment purchasing ceremony that last at least for three hours later on with a belly full of the repast – additional financial losses.  Salutations to saree shop proprietors and their dedicated team for their lifelong patience, tolerance and sedulousness, what a yeoman service they are rendering to the ‘so called’ oppressed and overwhelmed section of the society.  The team selection and training must be acrid, gruff and rigorous at par with world class commando curriculum.  The band of brothers not only controls the assemblage, but their sugary perspicuous matchless parlance, along with the maneuver and artifice compels the already blase and fed up groom to buy sometime useless stuff under the cherubic name ‘designer saree.’ He waits outside the shop alone or along with kid and cursed each existing and non-existing individual, particularly shopkeeper and spouse, for countless time.  The whole team of salesman must be honoured with Victoria Cross, Bharat Ratna, Ashok Chakra or any other award of equal stature.




Saree is an unstitched garment having a great history, it is sensuous and glamorous factory output that all-time-wear for women.  It accentuates the curves of a woman and the mid-riff is usually exposed.  The origin of the saree is analogue to eternal latent and clandestine activities of the better half; the nationally approved as the India’s hereditary costume that has inbuilt liking for the youngest girl to a very old senile woman with the same degree of allurement and amity.  The integrity passion and adoration for approximately 5.30 meters in length and 1.25 meters in width modern princely cherished attire has similar fancy for women of the subcontinent of all social economical religious regional groups.  Saree is the eighth wonder of the earth; fondly the owner exchange, share and reciprocate with another lady, has delectation and exhilaration and gratification to hand over it to the nearest and the dearest for its primal use; no such genes are present in mustachio class.  Modernity has not amended the craze of the eves for beautiful and extraordinary and matchless feminine garment, even though the stock of easy to wear and suitable to work modern chequered garments of varied shapes and sizes are readily available in the market.  The magical saree has limited scope to alter, but innumerable future because of ceaseless experimentation used to recreate its comeliness for new beauty conscious modern age eves especially during the conference, interview, social gathering, festival, special occasion, engagement and wedding season.




Some cities are famous for a particular design, texture, colour, style, fabric, art of weaving and printing of traditional sarees from ancient time; employment generated manufacturing hubs have age old artisan of great repute from generations together, each weave of the garment has a specific name, depending upon their city origin and texture such as Banarasi, Paithani, Kanchipuram, patola, chikan, chanderi, etc; passing a saree through finger ring was considered as fine woven saree of any make.  It is veritably tough to pick up the single saree out of umpteen accessible selections during a particular occasion; on the contrary, some established norms bolster the choice.  Plethora of pattern and style of graceful sarees from these textile industries – hand loom, power loom - satiate the ever growing demand of the ladies of all ages.  There are more than 80 standard styles of draping; NIVI style is a common one that gives elegance and formal look - style alters as and when the languages with different dialect changes.  Simple sarees are generally cotton fabric and inexpensive, the costly sarees are of different style, texture and colour, ornamental, silky with gold or silver threaded embroidery; cost ranges between Rs hundred for simple to millions for expensive saree.  The modern saree is made up of artificial fabric such as polyester, nylon or rayon; different kind of material is used to form differing kinds of sarees.  Office wear sarees are generally light in weight.  Foreign ladies do have affection and fondness for the national attire.
    
                                       
There are some established signs and norms in the present context.  If an adolescent happened to be in wrapped saree with fancy blouse for the first time in her life, especially during a social gathering or school / college function or household ceremony, it is the indication that she is prone for merry making; probably due to increase level of estrogen hormone.  The interested party always cashes the opportunity in the first instance; it leads to deep friendship that sometime culminates into the marriage ceremony.  So the commencement of lovebird relationship lies in traditional clothing of teenagers, one may call it love at first sight.  Fashionable saree clad girl being on and often in the limelight during the marriage ceremony of her near and dear, is the clear cut indication of her temptation for the same in the coming season; one may propose her officially or through common friend as the chances of success are very high; parents cashes the opportunity is another story even though the girl has average credentials with normal look and of different size and shape – blessing in disguise.


Evening party in modern Indian metro culture is another occasion where she sizzles with party wear saree with elegance and stunning autocratic look.  Transparent or semitransparent Georgette or Chiffon saree with sleeveless or backless blouse are the first choice of fair look tall and slim beauty conscious ladies, where they reveal their stunning body curves in elegant style in a party wear saree is nothing but combination of art and science, other accessories enhance the pretty look.  The colour of a saree is equally important as that of texture and print for evening and late night party, light colour of minimal of 1500 shades ranging from white to rainbow with or without embroidery is the choice of the present day modern flock; fragile and ethereal golden or diamond ring and chain with pendant is the additional attribution.  The office-goers jean and skirt clad corporate girl grab the first opportunity to join birthday or sangeet or mahendi party in saree in trendy look; the essence of Indian culture and tradition; the sense of womanhood bubbled in the attire.  Pre-stitched saree is another trend that is easy to wear like a readymade western dress.  Pre-stitched saree was eventually manufactured for tiny lassies as they have similar liking as that of adults.

                       
       
For poor lady the saree is everything, two to the most three sarees suffice them for routine use.  The modern crazy lady ever remained the proud owner of at least a hundred sarees; her first love is to purchase the handful of them every month and exhibit it to the neighbor with lucid commentary; every now and then nagged the spouse that she has no collection as that of others; the financially self sufficient tribe is proportionately more daft and lunatic than the housewife.  A lady having three wardrobes full of sarees is a universal thing in an ultra modern community; a status symbol for many; repetition of same saree on different occasion is considered as a shame rather than fame.  The delightful saree is not a single entity; it is always associated with matching petticoat and a blouse; matchless fad has reached and deeply rooted in the nook and corner of the Indian subcontinent; make over and costly ornaments is a must.




The usage of saree – the symbol of Indian femininity - is ample.  The pre-eminent and appropriate attire for the mother during baby feeding is the saree.  Once upon a time the pallu was used as a towel to clean hands and mouth after every meal by children also to clean the snot and the tears after each snivel; in Hindi and local language movies it is used as a bandage to wrap the bleeding wound, as a rope to elope with the hero, as a head cover for a child to protect from all seasons, abashment for the heroine and suicidal rope for the disgruntle spirit.  In traditional Indian homes an unused saree was meant for quilt making; the cosiness and endearment was much more than a readymade blanket or quilt.  Most of the women from a liberal category depart with their treasure in a saddened disposition by handing over used garment to the maid with a god promise that a maid will come daily and will do the rituals with zeal and zest; the promise never been get fulfilled.  During the early days of independence from British raj, the used sarees were freely exchanged with steel utensils; now, the business has been shattered.  The writer has no knowledge about the precious and valuable coffer after her demise is a mystery.




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