Throughout this week, I have discovered what I originally thought would become relevant to me right away while in India. As an American woman in India studying social work, I have a subconscious special treatment of what business-like attire I must wear. While all the other social work students must wear their sarees to field placements on Tuesday and Thursdays, we American’s must wear a kurta above some full-length pants. For those of you who are not sure, sarees are what you may have seen women wearing in pictures or in films: it is a piece of long fabric in which their body is wrapped in an elegant way. What I must wear is something also tradition, but maybe a bit more casual for Indians.
I am explaining this to you, only so you have a better picture of the excitement and fascination store officials had towards us American girls as we did a few days of saree shopping. We were invited to a wedding in the southwestern most state, Kerala. It is supposed to be the greenest, cleanest state in India. Several people have asked me whose wedding we are going to. It has not been an uncommon response for people to be a bit confused when I told them that it was a friend of a friend. A friend of a friend has a sister getting married next weekend. Because she knows some of us, she wanted all of us to come. We were a little unsure at first. I did not want to be the overeager American to barge in on the wedding. That was not at all the vibe they gave us. There will be over 1000 people there, whi
ch is quite normal or average. Although these celebrations last for one week or so, we will only be there for a long weekend component. This is the reason we went on several adventures to buy sarees. The condition was that if we went, we must wear the sarees. None of us women had ANY problem with that.
First we went to the nearby mall, much nicer than any mall back home. It took a few stores to finally find a decent price range, in which there were shelves and shelves of fabric, all to make the sarees. It was a great thing that we had two of our Indian friends with us able to tell us which material to buy. Thank God they were there because, who would have thought that one material, which we would describe as silky, is actually considered casual rather than formal.
Our saree encounters did not stop there. The next day was a Monday, which was by chance the Social Work party day. The Social Work department here is quite literally amazing. It is like one huge family. Several members of the “family” including the professors informed us that it was a retro party. I never guessed I should have packed retro for India. It turns out retro for us, being the sixties Greecer/biker chick, the hippy from the sixties, or the eighties side pony-tale girls was quite different from the Indian retro. These girls were in brightly colored sarees, including one of hot pink. Their hair was up and puffy. The men were in tight pants and button up shirts. If I felt like I stood out while walking down the streets of India, that was just a taste for how different we felt in this circumstance. This only caused entertainment and conversation. It was a really fun time.
Finally for the week, our destination was one of the most well-known streets of Chennai, in which shops and vendors are everywhere. The street was of course packed full on a Saturday. Our objective for the day was to get a skirt fitted for underneath the saree along with a blouse stitched. Every woman wears a long skirt underneath her saree which has the purpos
e as being support for the all of the material. Above that, each woman wears a short blouse, above the midriff where the saree weaves elegantly around. It was quite easy to find someone to stitch our blouses and take our measurements. After all, we were the only white people of the hundreds of people on the street.
Now the anticipation begins for the trip to a beautiful state (from what I’m told). An Indian wedding is awaiting us!
I am explaining this to you, only so you have a better picture of the excitement and fascination store officials had towards us American girls as we did a few days of saree shopping. We were invited to a wedding in the southwestern most state, Kerala. It is supposed to be the greenest, cleanest state in India. Several people have asked me whose wedding we are going to. It has not been an uncommon response for people to be a bit confused when I told them that it was a friend of a friend. A friend of a friend has a sister getting married next weekend. Because she knows some of us, she wanted all of us to come. We were a little unsure at first. I did not want to be the overeager American to barge in on the wedding. That was not at all the vibe they gave us. There will be over 1000 people there, whi
ch is quite normal or average. Although these celebrations last for one week or so, we will only be there for a long weekend component. This is the reason we went on several adventures to buy sarees. The condition was that if we went, we must wear the sarees. None of us women had ANY problem with that.
First we went to the nearby mall, much nicer than any mall back home. It took a few stores to finally find a decent price range, in which there were shelves and shelves of fabric, all to make the sarees. It was a great thing that we had two of our Indian friends with us able to tell us which material to buy. Thank God they were there because, who would have thought that one material, which we would describe as silky, is actually considered casual rather than formal.
Our saree encounters did not stop there. The next day was a Monday, which was by chance the Social Work party day. The Social Work department here is quite literally amazing. It is like one huge family. Several members of the “family” including the professors informed us that it was a retro party. I never guessed I should have packed retro for India. It turns out retro for us, being the sixties Greecer/biker chick, the hippy from the sixties, or the eighties side pony-tale girls was quite different from the Indian retro. These girls were in brightly colored sarees, including one of hot pink. Their hair was up and puffy. The men were in tight pants and button up shirts. If I felt like I stood out while walking down the streets of India, that was just a taste for how different we felt in this circumstance. This only caused entertainment and conversation. It was a really fun time.
Finally for the week, our destination was one of the most well-known streets of Chennai, in which shops and vendors are everywhere. The street was of course packed full on a Saturday. Our objective for the day was to get a skirt fitted for underneath the saree along with a blouse stitched. Every woman wears a long skirt underneath her saree which has the purpos
e as being support for the all of the material. Above that, each woman wears a short blouse, above the midriff where the saree weaves elegantly around. It was quite easy to find someone to stitch our blouses and take our measurements. After all, we were the only white people of the hundreds of people on the street.
Now the anticipation begins for the trip to a beautiful state (from what I’m told). An Indian wedding is awaiting us!
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