Wearing a saree

It was fairly late in my trip before I got a saree. In Jaipur, when I went shopping with Jooly, she said saree was too complicated, I should get suit. I didn't believe her, but didn't want to argue, so I got suits. Turns out she was right. I got my first sarees in Ooty. Michael was resting, and I went out with Christopher and Ramesh. We went to the fabric store and I picked out two outfits. What we call saree has three parts; the blouse, the petticoat, and the saree. We went to the tailor, and he said he would have it done tomorrow. That was fine. We went back to the hotel and had tea with Michael. Ramesh left, and no one thought anything about it. He came back with my sarees! Christopher and Ramesh thought we should go back to the fabric shop and have the girls put it on me. I thought that was silly, but what the heck. We went, and two of the girls wrapped me in my new saree. (Top picture has one of the girls with me) I loved it! I wore it all evening and didn't want to take it off at bedtime. I did, though, and in the morning, I wanted to wear it again. When I took it off, I tried to fold it so it would be easy to rewrap in the morning. The saree is 6 meters of material, which is more that 6 yards. It is a handful of material! Christopher and Ramesh were there and we were getting ready to go out for the day. I stood out of sight to put on the blouse and petticoat, and was trying to wrap the saree. Michael asked if I needed help. I did. Once the blouse and petticoat are on, one is fairly well dressed, so I came out more into the room. Michael, Christopher, and Ramesh were all helping and arguing about how it goes. Michael asked how many men does it take to wrap a saree, and we all started to laugh so hard! We finally got it presentable, but not right, so we went on our way. We were going to Ramesh's home anyway, so he said his wife could teach me. We were walking down the street not far from the hotel, when Ramesh talked to some ladies that were out doing something. It was all in Tamil, so I don't know what he told them. He said to me "Go" and pointed at the ladies, so I went. They took me around the corner and into a third lady's house. Her daughter was sitting doing school work. She stopped working and just stared at what was going on. She was probably about 7 years old. The three ladies talked to each other with an occasional English word for me. They got the saree on with much laughter. In India, a person can never go out half dressed, so they put flowers in my hair and a bindi on my face. Good thing I already had my bangles, or they would have had to give me those, too! When we were done, I stepped out the door, and there was a crowd! People were standing in the street or leaning out their doors and windows looking, laughing, talking. Michael came and took a picture of me. I wanted one with the ladies. The one stayed in her house, and the other two went back out in the street. One got very shy, but the other was agreeable. We begged and the shy one went and got her scarf, then we took a picture (second one down). I thought it was fun and was pretty amazed how they stopped their day to help me, when one said,"Come for tea." I wasn't sure what she meant.....now or sometime when I wanted to....so I asked,"Now?" Yes, now, so I went into her house and had tea.

I was confidant now that I could wrap my own saree, so when we got back to Chennai, I tried. No luck! Michael and I were going to Carolin's parents' house for dinner, so I took it along and Carolin's mom gave me good lessons. She did it, then she made me do it a few times. The third picture is at their home. Carolin is in Maine going to college, but her sister Katherine lives there. The picture from left to right: Katherine, her dad, Michael, her mom, and me.

One day we went to Kancheeporum, which is famous for their silk sarees. My first two are cotton. While we were there, I bought 5 silk ones.

O.K. Three groups of people have showed me how to put this thing on, and one gave thorough lessons. I should be good to go. I wanted to wear one home. Think I could get it on? Nope! Picture number 4, my fourth helper and the fourth different way to wrap it. Christopher's wife helped me get it on. Once they are on, they stay on and are very comfortable. I think it just takes practice. Now that I am home, I need to spend a day in front of a full-length mirror wrapping and unwrapping until I can get it right. Who knew it would be so hard? Certainly not me!
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