Sari Shopping

 

Sari Shopping
Madras, India
Spring 1994

I went to India for the first time when I was 37 and I feel in love with the country immediately. So I wanted to become Indian immediately. I asked these two women to help me find a sari for me to wear and they found the perfect piece of cloth. It was emerald, raspberry and gold and it was beautiful. I asked them to help me drape the six yards of fabric around me and I spent the day walking around as if this was my normal attire. But truthfully, it was too damn irritating to wear the thing because it kept slipping off my shoulder. And I kept tripping no the fabric at the bottom. And it was too difficult to climb the stairs. I wore it once that day and packed it away.

About five years later, my high school students were putting on a performance of The King and I. The stage director mentioned that he wanted big, majestic-looking pillows for the opening scene of the king’s throne. I told him I had just the fabric he wanted. I dug out my sari and showed him and he agreed. That afternoon, my saris was cut in to piece and several pillows were made and the set to the King’s throne looked absolutely majestic.

When I went back to India ten years later, I bought a beautiful, royal blue silk scarf and that seemed to suit me better.
To read more stories, check out: bkmemoirs.blogspot.com
or bkmemoirs.wordpress.com

showed him and he agreed. That afternoon, my saris was cut in to piece and several pillows were made and the set to the King’s throne looked absolutely majestic.

When I went back to India ten years later, I bought a beautiful, royal blue silk scarf and that seemed to suit me better.

 
To read more stories, check out: bkmemoirs.blogspot.com
or bkmemoirs.wordpress.com