The whole six yards

A conversation that led to this post:

Me: (In the pantry, steeping a tea bag) Wow! Enna special? You turned up in a saree!
She: Nothing special ya!
Me: Don't chumma say nothing. Birthday aa?
She: No ya! I have so many sarees. Rarely wear them. Why simply save it up for functions only? So i decided to wear it to work.
Me: Nice ya!
She: Well, it will look and all nice, but who is even thinking of me having to maintain it?
Me( thinking) If Saree maintenance is difficult, then why go for it? :)

For most of us ladies these days, office wear would mean a pair of jeans and a top or a salwar-kurta. The whole concept of the saree being an attire for everyday purpose is gone! Everybody complains about the difficulty in maintaining a saree! For God's sake, people work the fields in a saree. Until the advent of "modern outlook", the saree was our staple clothing. My mom goes to work everyday in a saree. How is being in an air conditioned office tough? Why then does our generation think that it is difficult to handle and manage? It is simply because we are not used to draping a saree. Anybody will vouch for the fact that a saree clad woman, when draped well, is elegance personified. But well, we have not been used to wearing it oh-so-often. It is only during some function that we would slip into one (of course, draping it isn't as easy as slipping-in!) And then all the maami's would go, aDa! So pretty! You girls look so nice in a saree. You should wear it often!
And then you suddenly feel that all eyes are on you. So much that you want to go back to being in your "normal" clothes. Ladies of our generation, who are interested, should learn the skill of draping the saree. Only then will we realise how beautiful it is. And we should start treating the saree also as normal clothing, not as something that is unmanageable and attention grabbing. And the first step to that would be to stop asking people who turn up to work in a saree as to what is special?! :)