#debsaristories #thankful #onlineshopping #nomakeup Not that I am not thankful everyday, but certainly a long pending write up to share thankfulness for all the entrepreneur women that are the reason behind our saree collection, that have solely tirelessly created a brand, a space, an identity and most importantly numerous long lasting relationships. Wearing a silk kota saree which perhaps is my first time online purchase after I moved to USA. And then there was no turning back.

 But when I pause to think of the amazing ladies behind the names, the Facebook pages, the messenger contacts, there is enormous hardwork, day and night efforts tending to this baby, sleeplessness, sometimes leading to ill health.. it's a lot. Everytime we see a saree uploaded on our favorite Facebook page, we are immediately tempted to play "fastest finger first" we dont realize if its day or night for the other person. we just ping. And guess what? The response is immediate (although I always expect it delayed by few hours). Then I started realizing in my intent not to forget or miss the product I am beginning to become a rude customer. I then started being mindful and would ping during my night time which is day time in India. Guess what? These amazing ladies are more busy creating wonders working with karigars and dealing with real world problems. The more I learn from your lives the more I respect you all. Many of you deal with customers one to one instead of deploying others in your place. That's because we want you and you know us by instinct. And all you expect in return is love in the form of pictures, that's it? I mean seriously... how sweet is that! The few that I got close to in the process immediately know my taste and my dislikes. They get me what i want even before I can wish for it. They always stretch and go extra mile without asking. i feel so lazy and rude compared to you. Come on, can you ever tell a grocery shopkeeper to open doors at midnight just because you liked something in his shop and want "more pics" or "more colors"? (S)He will smack us out. I can go on and on but it will be less. I couldn't exist in such amazing groups posting pics without you. You all have my unconditional love and many best wishes all the time.

#debsaristories #memories Another Sravan month thamboolam and yes happy janmashtami too! I couldn't do justice to the saree today. It's a simple organza with silver weave but very pretty in person. I am sure someone else could have carried it off much better than me. Exhausted work week. Just the enthu doesnt die that's all. And I know many like me who wait to drape that perfect saree for the perfect occasion and for the perfect pic to post in Sareespeak. Kabhi tareef mile to sahi nahi to hum phir chale apne pyar mein koshish karne. Do you store the most important memories in the most important part of the brain? I do.

There are certain events I refresh time and again so I dont forget them in old age. I am sure you may have noticed too, when elders lose memory due to old age they often forget their recent memories but always remember their past, especially childhood and their friends, family and events of those times. It must be something amazing about childhood that the brain conveniently stored such memories which often come back only in old age. Now, we all will go through it one day, I think if we treat every day as childhood, chances are we will remember this day too! Perhaps it had to do with the carefree life as kids, which as we gro up gets masked with worldly burdens. Some of my best memories are not in "teens" but in "ties". I dont want to lose them. They are dear to me. I want to hold on to them so I keep refreshing them time and again Oh yea one last thing. Dance is apparently good way to keep up with memory during old age because it involves movement, timing, thinking - full body and mind workout.

#debsaristories Indianness isn’t a country. It’s a habit. Indianness isn’t also about a day, it’s about everyday. I missed recent milestones like Handloom day and Independence Day for draping sarees but catching up today in a simple, light handloom multi colored uppada cotton saree! Wah a perfect drape for a 100F day. Teamed with simple ilkat cotton blouse. Been wishing for uppada silk from a long time and haven’t been lucky to find ‘merawala ‘ yet, well I am happy with this cotton version in the meantime. Migration doesn’t change certain things. Migration allows carrying pollen from one place to another so there can be fruits. Migration allows the birds carrying seeds to drop it elsewhere so new crop could grow. That happens with us too. I remove footwear instinctively although many homes allow footwear inside and store them in bedrooms. I believe that some germs are hard to fight and it’s best to leave our egos and footwear at the door as we enter home (our or others). That’s my indianness At the same time I don’t have a problem cooking and storing food to be eaten as leftovers the next day. I don’t stick to ‘giving away alias wasting’ food just because we couldn’t consume it same day. I guess in olden days there wasn’t a good system to preserve food for later consumption and the tropical weather doesn’t help much. That’s when we learn from what’s applicable and sensible today. That’s still my indianness I listen to old patriotic songs almost every other day just because I relate to them. Hey but I do enjoy the Bailamos, MJ and Ricky Martin as much as I heard them growing up. Showing respect to tools of trade including computers and books, valuing money, izzat for elders, automatically assuming our friends kids as our extended family, showing up at friends place without an appointment, sitting and sipping chai pakora, enjoying a non brainy masala mass movie and clapping with the audience, cheering for cricket team... koi indianness kaise chodega? You can do blood transfusions but can’t still get rid of it. Indianness is everyday. So is any day where you have chosen to settle for good. America, UK, UAE, Australia etc etc. to each their own. Just because one adopts a different custom or culture doesn’t make them less patriotic and vice versa. So long as we learn from the good we see around us and use it for good- it’s all good!

Pujo around the corner and first things first! My shakha pops already adorned my wrists. It’s reminder of the good times to come and memories to be made. It’s time for my favorite shaktiswaroopini to visit the earth again and to hit soul music with the conch shell that informs - she has arrived. Maa ashcheyn.

#debsaristories #varalakshnivratham I don't miss a chance. Saree pehene aur pehnaane ka. Of course I wished to continue celebrating this puja even after my marriage to bangali babu. I was always amused dressing up ma Lakshmi as a kid too. May goddess bless us with some sense and perhaps some maturity like the rest of the animals in the planet. Think about it, God created elephants. Elephants dint go create crazy automobiles that polluted the planet God created lions. Lions dint go create concrete jungles in the name of gated communities and neighborhoods! God created birds. Birds dint go create airplanes and drones to disturb their own ecosystem God created fishes and marine life. They dint go and mess the ocean bed with plastic waste and toxic dump. God created them all to preserve nature and then he created man, supposedly most intelligent of them of all who ended up destroying them all. How on earth are we superior by any way at all? Lions eat other animals, that dint change since evolution, animals eat insects or fodder, that dint change either. They continued to be who they are. The greedy one is the homosapien. He wouldn't stop, for nothing! On he goes every minute on his path of (self) destruction. I loved Lion King movie. These were my thoughts watching it.

#debsaristories #expectations Shravan mash Friday. Red matka silk and jamdani muslin pallu (the pic doesnt show the intricate sequins and weaving right?) I havent been writing my heart and mind out recently. Some thoughts are precious when left silent. I would be lying of I say I have no expectations at all from anything and anyone! Totally untrue! Socho? Post daala in social media to we want likes and comments, saree drape kiya we want compliments, office mein acha kaam kiya to we want recognition, even at home.. we expect love. we expect kids togrow up and remember us to be good parents. We expect parents to remember we are good children. We expect. Every action has equal expectation. We get.some, we fail most. Absolutely fail in most. But, we dont take a lesson from those failures, and we continue to expect. I am yet to meet the soul that is able to conquer this greed of life and what makes them happy? I guess expectations aren't as bad as self sympathy or depression of their expectations not being met! I fall trap too. I have accepted I am human. Very ordinary human that too. I think so long as our expectations dont hurt or come the way of others happiness, perhaps it's ok to deal with it by ourselves. Right?