Saree Adventure

Today we went to Laxmi road which is one of the shopping areas in Pune. It was very crowded with hundreds of shops and people and cars and autorickshaws and donkeys and roadside vendors. We went to a clothing shop because a friend wanted to buy a sari for his girlfriend. They were so beautiful that I could not resist buying one, too! And I'm really glad I did because it was a really interesting and fun experience. First you sit down on the cushioned floor and they bring you all sorts of materials so you can choose your sari. They wrap them around you so you can see how you look. Interestingly enough, in this shop it was all men selling the saris. There were so many different patterns and colors, some with jewels sewn into the material, some with gold thread and so on. Once we decided on the colors, then they cut the sari material for us. It comes as a big long piece, and they have to cut away the part that will be made into the blouse. Then they showed us a tailor to go to to have the blouses made. A man from the clothing shop led us around onto another street to the tailor. Then he measured me for the blouse, much more carefully than they measure in the U.S. He didn't just measure my chest and waist, but all these other points, too. I had to decide the shape of the neck (I picked round), how long I wanted the sleeves, and how low I wanted the neck in the front and back. Then I had to choose how to have the sari hemmed. We managed to get through all of this with us not speaking Hindi or Marathi and them speaking a little bit of English. (Pune is a large city of about 2 million, but not many tourists come here so very few signs are in English and not many people speak English very well.) Everyone was so nice and helpful and it was a lot of fun! Tomorrow my friend will go back and pick up the two saris for us.

*maki-girl