The Saree

I love this garment. It is actually a large piece of cloth. Normally 6 yards long. It can be worn in any manner you want. Sexy or homey. Professional or party wear. Traditional or stylish. Just this one piece of cloth. It can be worn in many ways.

Women can have their region, language and culture identified. They don’t need to speak. Just drape the saree and voila! Your origins will show. You may speak any language, but the way a woman drapes her saree will give her away.

Amazing! How this ancient dress (for lack of better word) still is used in today’s modern world of cocktail dresses, jeans and skirts. It’s still professional wear for many in India. It’s still an elegant piece of artistry that is draped on your body. Somehow when a woman drapes a saree, she becomes more elegant. Even when she walks gawkily, there is a certain grown up air about it.

I remember my childhood when I used to try and drape the saree my mother discarded after she returned from college. It would be warm and cool at the same time. I used to stand in front of the mirror and try to wind the huge piece of cloth around my waist. It was ridiculous. I would wonder how she can wear it so quickly and neatly. Where do you start? One must indeed be an adult to be able to drape this huge thing around you and let it make sense. It covers a woman’s body – any woman’s body – fat or thin – in a way that looks so natural and beautiful.

Many in my generation feel that it’s a pain to drape a saree. They proudly say one of the things they don’t know is how to drape a saree. Its not requisite for an adult Indian woman to know how to drape a saree. Why should we? When we get those pin up ones and readymade types? O but the freedom of draping it the way you want! The pallu can be free or pleated; long or short. The pleats can be 6 or 8. It can be hugging your lower body or just loosely draping it…

They feel its old fashioned. But have you looked at the cloth of a saree? The Kanjeevarams, the Banarasis, the Mysore Silks, the georgette ones, the satiny ones, the elegant cotton ones… those designer sarees with embellishments. They are so beautiful! I know it makes you look like a walking jewellery shop or an art-book at times… but it has some style! And you can legitimately show your mid riff to the world and no one will say, ‘Chee! How indecent!’

I had one saree that I took to London when I was a student. I would wear it every time I missed home. Whenever I wanted to feel elegant and Indian, I would drape a saree and read a book in my room. I would look out the window and see all those women with a skirt and blouse or jeans – all bundled up and hurrying in the cold. They seemed to look so colourless. In contrast, I felt as if I was so full of colour and vibrant. Even if my saree was black, it felt so vibrant! It made me feel so... cool!!!

What with Rekha and Vidya Balan making it a style icon, it seems to have regenerated. But I feel it never was out of style. Look at the Indian Mamis – anywhere they go, they drape a sari and walk out. It can be New York, Durban or Mumbai.

The garment remains. An eternal symbol of womanhood. Flexible, graceful, eternal and multi-tasking.

India and Alienating Pakistan

Pakistan and India are the separated siblings. They are quite similar in culture, food, behaviour and language, to an extent. Other than the fact that they are a muslim nation and India is a (mostly) hindu nation. The people of both countries are equally kind and equally callous to each other. When abroad, they are mistaken to be one. There is no difference between an average Pakistani and an average Indian. Both can be quite overbearing and obnoxious and end up speaking the same language when drunk. They both also like the same kind of food (in general) and it’s tough to differentiate.

Back home, the average Indian can go to America, UK Africa but Pakistan is quite a difficult place to go. It’s the same for our neighbours. But when we do end up going to the other person’s country, we are treated well. The people are kind helpful and nice. Especially if they know you are an Indian in Pakistan or vice versa. Except of course that the police and army personnel covertly or overtly follow you around. It’s just for safety. Nothing personal.

But then no offense to Pakistanis, they have the army personnel for protection of every foreign national. It’s just that it is the hotbed of terror and home to terrorists in South Asia. As Indians, we definitely feel safer. We also somewhat sympathise with the average Pakistani who has to live in such uncertain climes. Though, I am sure they are not all that fettered and go about their business just as usual.

Then come the Uri attacks in September and we get all hurt and angry and completely hate the country. We want the bloody Pakistanis to pay for what they did to our army. Those terrorists are so sneaky… that ISI and the Pakistani army always collude and use India like a training ground! We need to take a tough stand. We need to fight back. Our PM and our army assure us that India is not going to sit quiet and they will strike at a place of their choice and time. All the Indians are happy. A few days later when we hear about the surgical strike, we feel even better. Jingoism at its peak. Mera Bharat Mahan! Definitely! Our Prime Minister goes onto the international forum and declares Pakistan should be declared a militant state and that they should be alienated.

We agree. Pakistan is a hotbed of terror and breeds terrorism. They are the worst kind of state and we require that it should be alienated. Yes! Definitely so!

So we should not do business with them. We should not have Pakistani artists working in India and in Bollywood. Uh?? Where did that come from? Alienate them sure – I mean politically and all that is just fine. Economically? Uh… like not do business with them? There are families who have relatives in Pakistan and vice versa. They do visit each other and still interact. During partition, one half stayed there and the other came this side and vice versa. How can we alienate one half of our families? It seems so strange… even partition has not been able to do that and now, just to prove we are patriotic, we need to ignore one part of our families and friends?

Besides, artists are an international family. Why should we alienate artists from the other country? Politics has entered sports, but somehow, it has stayed away from art and films. Why should it start anew in this area of life? After all, music and art have bound these two countries traditionally. That is not the train of thought one likes to think of when thinking of alienation of our neighboring country which is a hotbed of terror. How can the handsome Fawad Khan or the melodious Atif Aslam have anything to do with terror? It's like alleging that blue-eyed handsome chaiwala is going to blow your head off while he serves tea. Ridiculous!! 

Alienation on a social and economic front is quite difficult for the Indians and Pakistanis because the fabric of our cultures and societies are quite interwoven in a subtle manner, irrespective of the political situations in our respective countries. We are empathic to each other and understand the others difficulties on a day to day basis since we share almost the same mentality and behaviour. We are not exactly foreign to the other but definitely forbidden. So we look at each other with curiosity, not fear or revulsion. Except during cricket matches and world cups. Only then the political and the social sentiments match and we definitely want those bloody Pakistanis to lose! It is only in the sports and political arena that the 'tu tu mein mein' of these bitter neighbours rears its ugly head. But after the match is done, the tempers cool and hopefully India wins the match, life returns to normal.

This same sentiment of economic alienation is quite easy to observe when it comes to Chinese goods. Though they are cheaper in price, they are cheap in quality as well. though there is variety, technology and all that razzmatazz, its easier to accept that we can avoid the Chinese goods and be Indian and buy Indian. The average Indian can just not relate to the average Chinese. We are linguistically and culturally far far away from ‘those Chinkies’ and alienating them is relatively easy.