Kal Ho Na Ho! Life life today

 #debsaristories #kalhonaho #LiveLifeNOW I was lying all this while. To myself. To you. Sorry gals! I have always stated I Love sarees. There wasn't ever a doubt in my mind about it, but yesterday night when we started receiving warning messages to prepare for potential evacuation due to the ongoing fires around bayarea, I only packed two things. 

 1. A bag of documentation including passports, our certificates and basically things that we needed to start life to scratch should the uneventful situation occur. 

2. A bag of small valuables. Also including pair of clothes for each of us, medicines and those that are needed to keep our life on. 

 And for the first time saree did not make it to any of these kits. I felt cheated, I feel guilty at the same time. I was praying all night that hope the situation to evacuate doesn't occur and while I lay there awake I was wondering what if the worst had occurred? 

What would happen to the beautiful sarees I have been collecting and haven't draped yet because I am still waiting for that perfect occassion or the perfect moment. What if that never comes by? Some new sarees are more than three years sitting in closet! Was this fair? Wasn't I simply splurging without need and that too something I couldn't carry when I am in an emergency. I felt terrible. I felt I had waited too much for that perfect moment and have perhaps let many passed by unnoticed. 

 So today, while we are all still worried about the terrible smoky outdoor weather, the 300000 acres fire burning and yet to be contained, the repeated messages of what to be prepared for (let me tell you one can never be truly prepared for an emergency) i took a moment to acknowledge today as a special day because I still have a roof over my head and my family is in tact with me and we smiled and we are together. Tomorrow could be another day and yet to be seen. What it holds is not in my hand, so I grabbed today and did not let go of it. 

 This is a beautiful organza jamdani saree with a black benarasi blouse..purchased more than two years ago. I thought the blue is best to cheer me up along with my favorite chai earrings. 

Gajanana Ganesha Chaturthi

 #debsaristories #ganesha #momsondance Shall I share a secret? I enjoy dancing with bettu (only him and no one else) and everytime he pushes me to do a partner workshop and I do nakhra that "no no I won't" and he tells me sweet things to motivate me - I enjoy it. For while it lasts, I enjoy every moment. 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥 https://youtu.be/NXT7YjMcjsk 

💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥 

Honestly he wants to push my limits to make it but more challenging for me but honestly I struggle and try (not even my best). So when he said he wanted to choreo a routine for this particular song to teach his workshop participants ahead of Ganesha puja I definitely was excited. Few things kind of evolved. We wanted to do an "act" and not just "dance" so definitely we needed Ganesha as the center attraction. But I wasn't willing to keep an idol, and there you go! I took a silk saree blouse that I was going to get stitched when we visit India and painted Ganesha on the silk fabric. I bought the frame so the Ganesha can continue to bless us! And ye! The #madrasi in me is picky about the umbrella. See ... we always purchased simply clay idols for puja and the color lover I was, I would always be tempted to immediately go to the man on the bicycle that sells colored paper umbrellas for the lord. These umbrellas would spin in circles and somehow my favorite ones would either be on the topmost part of his pile or the expensive ones.. so after much thought and decision I would settle for something that fits the money and the mann. This was the next complex decision making after sarees. So ye coming back today, there is no way I could skip the umbrella and thars when the patio umbrella suddenly gets promoted to do the honors. Well I ended up decorating the area to bring the aura. Bettu initially suggested I do an arati and walk but weather unpermitting I switched to choosing greens (the lord had always been eating healthy) from our garden. We incorporated a small story in the act... the one where Ganesha and Kartik were asked to go around the world to see how is the fastest. while Kartik jetted off on his peacock, Ganesha simply did three pradakshana of his parents and said they are the world to him. Such is his buddhi. My intention of sharing these with bettu in an informal way is to convey that the essence of these stories are important that one can think and execute using wisdom despite being a kid.. and also that religious teachings need not be considered bitter allopathic pills hard to swallow. They are like ayurvedic solutions where the ingredients are part of our day to day life and we gain good health without explicit bitterness and its a part of life. Whether God existed or was created by us or whether they were highly scientific advanced supernatural beings from another galaxy, many of these lessons are helpful for our own development, and that's all matters. Ganapati bappa moraya!

H- "Hech "?, "Eych "? English is a phunny language

 #debsaristories #haigarmi #Englishisaphunnylanguage "H"= 'Ech'?, 'Hech'? It's burning hot outside and I sweating in the saree.. look at the Sunflower. Reminds me of the "Murjhaya phool" poem I read in childhood. Also it made me wonder Sunflower loves the Sun and always looks up to it for its life, but the same Sun when goes hard on it, it kills its own life. Such is the irony of Nature. Anyways! English Alphabets "H"= 'Ech'?, 'Hech'? Ok. I never grew up listening to Baby Einstein 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ and all my childhood I used to pronounce H as "Hech". Remember the ABCD rhyme? I would sing "Hech Eye Jay Kay Ele-me-no-pi". Right? Ab mujhe kya pata Hech kab Ech ban gaya? Socho Hech mein "Hh" silent. Aisa kaun karta hai bhai ??? So how do you pronounce Happy bday.. "appy bday" and Halloween as "Allwyn". Anyways.

 In last two years this gave me more trouble and so much so that every time I used to say Hech my boss would sneeze.🤣 and say.. tumhare అండర్ কি chennai baahar aa rahi hai. In good spirit and intentions of course. My team is very caring and watches out for me. They would rather watch my back than being made fun by outsiders! So from then on my "Hech" training started... and then it became "Ech" and now I do the slang with "Eych" even if woken from sleep. It's really hard to adjust to a language and be able to speak as intended. This isn't because it English. In my syllabus all languages are equal and I am picky about pronunciation in whichever language I speak.. be it hindi bengali telugu tamizh or even English. That also goes to calling people names... no no not the bad way.. many people cut short their names to make it easy for others. Ashish becomes Ash, Pradeep is Mr. P (yeah Right ?) Kalpana became Kal (pronounced kayl and I would wonder why becomes Kalpana isn't tough to pronounce imho)... Saravanan became Sarav .. endless list. Huh. Oh by the way I am called Shaleeeni. I correct their typo and autocorrect every time just for fun.😝 I don't cut short my name. I don't want to be called Shalini, Shal, Shali or Saali nothing. It's Shalini... with an "Eych" in it😝🥰

Happy Independence day India

 #debsaristories #happyindependenceday 

Dear India, 

Happy birthday to you🌟💥. Wish you many more. 

Sorry this year I couldn't wish you in person like I have been doing past few years but that's ok. You should stay safe and so do I. But shouldn't stop your fun day! I know you are old and I wasn't around when you were born, but that doesn't stop me from being your good friend. Friendship doesn't care for age. I must agree you are growing old gracefully and over these years you have trued best to keep up with the changing times. Growing up has its own challenges and you had a lion's share of those too. From child marriage to Sati to Caste system and discrimination you dealt with a lot and still trying your best. I guess before you were born people just happened to exist together in one continent. They were devoted and patriotic to their own, but hadn't thought of you as one entity. It took and outsider to tell us the power of our onesness. And yeah the painful journey you had to go through to get this realization is incomparable, but chalo jo hotha hai ache ke liye hotha hai. 

Waise what are your goals India? 

Whats your bucket list? 

Tum aur kya haazil karna chahoge? 

May i suggest few of you haven't thought about it yet! 

 🇮🇳 first of all think about breaking barriers between your own soul. The body can't function with a missing part, so can't you. 

🇮🇳 Be an inspiration to the future. Do something so kids want to love you more despite your old age. Make them love you. Pyar doge tabhi to pyar milega na? 

🇮🇳 Respect and treat all equally. Ye ye you have heard it million times, but I seriously mean it. Stop reservations of any and all kind. Trust every individual to work hard and make their mark. I agree not all are equally blessed with facilities so do help those irrespective of their caste creed sex or age. 

Pls don't mock me that I am far from you and giving you unsolicited suggestions. Just because she is married and moved to her inlaws place, a girl doesn't stop loving her parents, especially mother. That's how my relationship with you is too. I of course love my karm bhoomi for giving me what I have today I can never forget my janm bhoomi. So yeah. DIL MEIN HO... AND RAHOGE DESPITE YOUR OLDAGE. Enjoy your happy. There are millions that are wishing you as I write and I can hear the echos of "Indiaaaaa India.. ta ta ta. Indiaaaaa India..." 

I❤ 🇮🇳

Star Wars and Yoda!

 #debsaristories #memesofsareespeak #lockdownkesideeffects #laughteralert #rofl #crazyfamily 

We are big star wars fan family so today the meme is directly from Jedi Master Yoda! And I am desi version of Princess Leah in a gadwal saree in Independence day colors. 

What are side effects of lockdown and house arrest? 🙄🙄 All the below are true and my family hasn't handed me over to the asylum yet. Sweet of them!

1. I eat popcorn and drink soda while binge watching TV in the night and expect the movie theater guys to show up after "The End"🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️ 

2. I lie down on the recliner couch with a blanket on, and ask my husband to hand over pretend seat belts so I can imagine I am on the flight. Oh! I actually put the "do not disturb " sticker behind my couch so the cabin crew doesn't wake me up for meals🤦‍♀️ 

3. I call my husband 'bhayya' and argue with him for auto charge and not providing good service and I tell him.. "meter ke upar ek paise bhi nahi doongi". The poor man knows I lost it completely so he simply nods and replies "aap to regular sawaari ho madam, aap to waise bhi tips nahi dete ho" 

4. I walk into my closet and window shop and buy my own clothes🙆‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️. I then rearrange them as if I just took them out from shopping bag💃 

5. I sit in the backyard pretending to be wherever in the world I want to be. Switching between Taj Mahal, Jaisalmer desert, Udaipur lake etc.🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️ 6. To maintain sanity, I end up saree shopping (yup I broke my - "buy no sarees this year" rule. Only silver lining.. I ended up supporting weavers from pochampally, benarasi, kanchivaram and kolkata) 7. I take every opportunity to drape a saree and share with you all as hearing from you makes me feel good and stay connected with so many amazing women across the globe. Am I the only one or do any of you have these pseudo lockdown symptoms too?🤔🤔 Oh btw. I downloaded தமிழ், తెలుగు, हिन्दी keyboards on my phone but it won't allow me download anymore. I will exchange one of the above for bangla keyboard. Pro: even if I type a தமிழ் word in English spelling it neatly changes to the respective language Cons: read above line. It does that change even when I don't need it to🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Thank you India, thank you weavers

 #debsaristories #nationalhandloomday #iwearhandloom #isupportweavers #ThankYouIndia ❤ After much contemplating I settled for this Shantiniketan kantha stitch saree today. Did you think i was done with handloom day post? Well,not quite! 

🙏 Not until I thank the hands that create magic for us! It shows the greatness of our people and their creativity resulting from their blood and sweat. 🙏 Thankfully, most of my sarees are handloom. I am glad I have been supporting the handloom movement knowingly or unknowingly 

 🙏 Thankfully, I found it hard to choose between the various weaves. It shows the wealth and richness of our land 

🙏 Thankfully, I am educating myself everyday to a new weave, a new technique which otherwise would have been dead by now. It shows I have miles to go. 

🙏 Thankfully, through technology and media I am able to collect some of the rare masterpieces which otherwise I would have been ignorant of 

🙏 Thankfully, through many patrons, passionists and true patriots, "we the people" are able to connect to "them the weavers". I would have terribly missed the opportunity otherwise 

 🙏 Thanks to our collective efforts, hopefully some hands somewhere haven't stopped weaving, haven't lost hope, haven't shut looms, haven't starved or extreme step like suicide, haven't given up on humans, haven't stopped making us believe in magic, haven't crushed our beliefs that magic lies in the hands of the creator 

 Is this enough? Absolutely not, but us a good start at the very least. Today, on the National handloom day I purchased handloom satees from weavers to say the Thank You that my lips couldn't bring courage to utter. Take a moment, pause. 

Support the weavers, it would be shameful if these amazing weaves become simply museum art for coming generations to see, it would be shameful if the future generations cannot touch, feel and drape the love and warmth as we do. 

I Support Handloom, I Support Weavers. Do you?

National handloom day, Nalli Silks wedding trousseau

#debsaristories #iwearhandloom #nallihandloom @nallisilksarees 

Its national handloom day and I am wearing a simple and most elegant kanjivaram silk with a threadwork border and pallu purchased from Nalli 15 years ago by motherinlaw (ma) 

By the way, don't assume that me and ma haven't had our share of sour moments. Of course we did (and we still do sometimes)! Why wouldn't we? Coming from different cultures and backgrounds it does take time to understand each other, but those are the minor details of life. The bigger picture is all about love, respect and trust! The key is not to give up. The key is to value the relationship, the key is all that matters is family. 

You know how exciting it is to shop for wedding trousseau right? My wedding was in Gurgaon while parents where in Chennai and would flew in for the wedding. I couldn't take timeoff to go saree shopping in chennai or rather Kanchipuram as is common tradition. However one thing was common those days. All my family weddings at least for three generations started with a saree from Madras Nalli Silks, including my moms, my aunts, everyone. So while I wasn't in chennai, I was happy Delhi had Nalli! Bengali culture calls for lots of gifts to the bride from.her inlaws (yippee!) Called "tatva". Ma wanted to shop for my tatva and took me along for saree shopping. There was no particular agenda or colors in mind. As soon as we entered the shop, ma spotted this saree amidst a pile of other sarees (you know how busy saree shops are in festive season!) She said this is for my sister. Its a pretty silk and very elegant. So that was the first item checked off. As she sifted through the pile, she quickly changed her mind and declared this saree is for me. She continued to hold this one tight to her chest, she made the shopkeeper undress the mannequin and asked to pack the "benarasi" for my bou bhath (oh yea! No way bengali wedding shopping is done without a benarashi).. and on she went. She said she imagined me in this yellow saree and wanted to keep for me, although my sister would have looked gorgeous in this too. Sweet mamma.. ❤