Down Memory Lane


My mother found it very difficult to wrap her mind around my later day dressing sense, especially cotton clothes.
In the Ahmedabad where I have lived for over four decades, cotton is the norm, summer and winter – just thinner or thicker.  And Ma lived her life in silks, satins, chiffons, crepe d’chines and velvets.   As a pampered daughter of an importer/exporter of fine fabrics and accessories from all over the Far East and Europe, I too had grown up in the finest of clothes.     

Until Ahmedabad taught me the value of cottons to cope with hot weather.   The varieties seemingly endless and the comfort so endearing.  Besides I ran an outfit that tailored everything for a handloom and handicraft  organization, Gurjari ….. 
How could I possibly wear anything but cottons? 
The wonder of block prints, with vegetable dyes taking on so many different hues, different for each village with its own soil and water chemistries, coming together to an incredible, amazing variety………..

On her first visit to Ahmedabad, long years after I left home – my children grown by then, she was shocked to see women going for a morning wedding in elegant cotton saris --- gold embellished chandheris and maheswaris.  When I told her that the height of Ahmedabad old world elegance  was a slim string of pearls with an organdy or  starched cotton sari, she was aghast.  Couldn’t quite get it.
The height was the day I was going to Gandhinagar to interview the then chief minster, Mr. Solanki.  After telling her a bit about the political background of the day, I went off to get dressed and emerged wearing a crisp maroon sari with a floral block printed border and pallu.
“You’re wearing that to meet a chief minster?  Are you mad? The guard will not let you enter…” she exclaimed worriedly.  In her dictionary, cottons was for the common people who had no place in a neta’s circle!!

My mother was not alone.  I remember one summer holiday for the kids in their nanka. After days in synthetics to appease family, I pulled on a handloom salwar kurta for a trip to Hutchings High School – only to have my old science teacher taunt me ….
”So, do you usually wear handloom or is this only your fancy dress for your old school?”

 In college, I went the way of the teens of those days, with churidars and bell bottoms, with my own special touches, a hand-made crochet cap, long tulsi mala with cute pendants and tent-dresses that had the boys teasing me "bars bacon ki ma" when the film Brhmachari was released.

Today I happily switch from georgettes and chiffons to cottons and ocassional silks, depending on the season; obviously mainly cottons in Ahmedabad, saris, kurtas, kaftans, pants and even a bright cotton ghagra for maximum comfort.  Variety, after all, is The Spice of Life.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deepika Vs Madhuri

The music channels are full of the  “Deewani Mastani” song. It takes one back Madhuri Dixit’s so many kg ghagra kothawali dance in Devdas.  Pet obsession? Chitpavan women would never be caught in public watching such a performance, as Priyanka Chopra is seen, with perhaps the most authentic expressions crossing her face as she looks on at the interplay between Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone. Deepika, in   her pale gold avatar in a net outfit reminiscent of flamenco dancers, with many   co-dancers, seems to inhabit the same Madhuri  space.   She dances in a huge ornate space, more European than Peshwai in design.    Peshwai architecture was noted for its long, perhaps narrow halls and tall distinctively fluted and carved wooden columns based on stone to prevent damp and   insect damage --- all topped with intricately carved wood ceilings and all polished black in color.   Noted examples are the Mastani resurrected palace at the world renowned Kelkar Museum in Pune and the
Read more

Age-old Patriarchy??

  All our Puranas n mythologies are basically stories created to propagate concepts that the writers were promoting. and every subsequent re-writer gilded the previous -- the whole system elastic enough to accommodate differences and flavors to cater to different cultures, North, South, E ast, West, etc. So how about Our (2021) interpretations? They said Parvati created Ganesh from her own body.  Doesn't every woman fashion babies in her womb; nourished by her intake, the fetus becomes a baby in 9 months. No Immaculate Conception --  perhaps Shivji slipped away from his boisterous pals for a romantic rendezvous.  Voila! Baby boy Hua! Could have happened?? Hai an! Did that make Shivji n Parvati first human parents?   Kya khayal hai? Another conundrum: That solid wall of Patriarchy of ancient times. Was it really so solid? Why was Vidur called Daasi Putra when his father Ved Vyas also fathered Drithrashtra n Pandu too? Why was Krishna called Devaki Nandan? His father was King Vas
Read more

Where do we go? Pitralok Congames?

What is the meaning behind Hindu last rites?   Mental rifling and Google Baba on death show     our ancient Vedas have lyrical hymns to Man’s relationship with Nature, plus ways and means of dealing with it,   that were unfortunately overpowered   by   Brahminical platitudes and money-making practices, but the essence has   survived. The soul/Atman is immortal. It is released at the Antyeshti rituals that return the body to the five elements, air, water, fire, earth and space…denoted in the Rigveda, section 10.16: “Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered, O all possessing Fire, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the Fathers.When thou hast made him ready, all possessing Fire, then do thou give him over to the Fathers,   When he attains unto the life that waits him, he shall become subject to the will of gods. The Sun receive thine eye, the Wind thy Prana (life-principle); go, as thy merit is, to earth or heaven
Read more