Paul and Rita - India and About, 2005/6 - This'n'that - Sarees

    


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Sarees 

The idea that you can buy something to wear which simply no one else has the identical garment is an anathema to the average Brit and is the privilege of the very wealthy.

Here in Incredible India in the course of a day, week or month you will see a myriad of sarees worn by the very rich to the most poor and you simply will not see the same colour. 

Marks and Spencer eat your heart out!

The quality also is different for each part of the country, being made of silk, chiffon, synthetic in the north, light cotton as in the east in Kolkota area or heavy silk as in the south of the country.  

I spoke to Anju, a girl from Kolkota, who we met on the toy train to Shimla from Kalka, about this subject and she agrees it is almost impossible to see someone else wearing the same colour.  However, having observed this, as always there is an exception.

At festival time in the holy cities e.g. Haridwar on the road to Lucknow in Uttaranchal, North India, when whole families arrive for the holy fortnight Sept - October, then you will see up to a dozen of the same village/family wearing the identical sarees.

How they maintain the cleanliness of these garments is also a matter of intrigue, especially while out scything and threshing barley in the fields or doing the washing on a muddy river bank!  

 

(more details will be added later)

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