Friday, February 24, 2012

Draping Saris


Listening to: Bollywood songs
Mood: Semi calm

So…what’s the newest masala from India? I know it’s been a while, so let’s get you filled in. Since Christmas, we have settled into our new house and have a schedule going on. My eldest is comfortably in school and the general inept clownish nature of the school has tamed down a bit, but I suppose that’s because I’m not trying to get anything done. As per the G Family tradition, we had all of our boxes unpacked about 2 days after we moved in. And no, I’m really not exaggerating that much. It may have 4 days. We’ve hired a maid, which I’ll get into in my next post.  Daddy G has settled into work with Target India (a subsidiary of Target) and is once again working his butt off in true Daddy G fashion.  My work is going on in the background. I don’t get much, but it’s pretty steady. I’ve been doing a lot of sewing and reading.

My newest project has been learning how to tie a sari. Now if you don’t know anything about Indian clothes, tying a sari properly is one of the most ridiculously complicated ways of wearing clothes ever. They look beautiful when draped properly, but good lord almighty. In true Becky G fashion, one evening I was trying on clothes and decided that I needed to know how to do this. The husband and I have a running argument about how Indian I should be looking these days. In his opinion, I should forever ditch my black Guns N Roses Tee shirts and baggy jeans (p.s., never happening dude. I will be 90 and still wearing the same thing.) and stick with colorful kurtas and jeans. Salwars are outlawed as are saris, unless we have a fancy occasion to wear them to. Again, the minute someone tells me that I can’t/shouldn’t do something, I want to know why. After not finding a great reason, I decided that this was one rule I was comfortable throwing out the window.

Before you get too lost if you don’t know the terminology, this is a kurta (most of mine are regular short sleeved as it's hot) By the way, Fab India - amazing store:

This is a salwar, most of mine are short sleeved too, again because it's hot:


This is a sari, although to be honest, no one wears them this tight. I don't know how this girl is breathing:

So. In civil disobedience, I decided to turn to my trusty source of information to try and learn to drape a sari. Salwars are very simple to wear and I’ve been wearing them for the past 10 years to events, so no practice needed there. I went through about 8 videos that did not have verbal instructions, trying to get the sari on each time before I realized I would need verbal instructions also. All in all, I can do it now without extensive internet help, but that first evening took almost 3 hours. I’ve heard that it’s not so simple, but for now people are humoring me and telling me it looks ok. When Daddy G comes back from his business trip, I’m sure I’ll get a bit more objective opinions.

So. Here’s how it turned out.
Red Sari:



Pink Sari:


Blue Salwar


The blue salwar I just threw in because it was one of the first that I ever bought. Back before there was a G family, I was 21 and only weighed 130 lbs. I never thought I would fit in it again. It obviously fits a bit differently than it did when I was 21, (because hello, 9 years and 2 kids!), but what the hell, it fits!

Becky

No comments:

Post a Comment