Right from the time I was a kid, I have always questioned my mother as to who was the first woman who figured out the correct way to drape a sari. I had always mentioned to her about the various other permutations and combinations in which a sari could be draped around her, and suffice to say she wasn’t too excited about the prospect of having to try out all my new styles at that point in time.
My guest author today provides simple pointers for all married men (or just men in general) in terms of the things to do when somebody at home is draping a sari. Read, enjoy and leave behind your thoughts as comments.
===============
I was concerned on hearing that Salman Khan has attempted to teach Sunny Leone how to wear a sari. While I have no comments to offer on Sunny’s choice of garment, I think she should have chosen a better teacher.
Buying a sari is one thing, but actually getting your loved one to wear it is a lot more tougher. Fortunately for you dear readers, I have been through this and I can offer some pointers that can make it easy for you to take this important step in your life.
a. Get out of the room. When my wife tries to wear a sari, I grab the kids and run to the other room. No amount of space is enough when the 4 metre long sari is about to be worn by your loved one.
b. Keep the accessories and matching blouse ready before you take the sari from the shelf. One of the enduring mysteries of the female species is that even after endless shopping in Pondy Bazar and Luz Corner, accessories will not match with the sari that they want to wear.
c. If the blouse doesn’t fit, it is the fault of the tailor. Don’t ever mention that it is perhaps because your loved one has put on a few kilos.
d. Keep a box of safety pins handy. One of the best kept secrets of the modern Indian woman is that for them, the whole edifice of sari pleats stands with the help of a few strategically placed safety pins. Stay away from affectionately hugging your loved ones when they are wearing a sari. Unless of course, you want to bleed to death from a thousand safety pins placed all across.
e. The younger ones want to look older. The older ones want to look younger. Their choice of sari will depend on how they want to look. Don’t attempt to select a sari for your loved one to wear. If you are forced to, point to one sari and say – “This is good” and then point to another and say ‘”That is also good.” Repeat this a few times till your loved one asks to you to get out of the room.
f. There are 80 different ways to tie a sari. If your loved one has figured out a way that works for her, consider yourself incredibly lucky.
g. The nail polish color has to go well with the sari worn by your loved one. If there is a mismatch, getting a fresh coat of nail polish is faster than getting your loved one to wear another sari.
h. Buying a sari for your loved one is a nice gesture. Your loved one will give you several reasons to regret it when she keeps you waiting while she tries to wear it. Find something to do for a couple of hours while your loved one gets ready.
My elder one is soon going to ‘graduate’ to paavadai – dhavani (Half Sari). No room is big enough to hold two women trying to dress up together.
Mahabore's Mumblings 
its a skill i marvel at. my daughters have firmly declined to learn it
@wiseguy from the east, so true, however, this skill seems to be dying a natural death nowadays 🙂
hahahah! Super sweet post…my Appa’s job was to put Amma’s pleats in place every day when she used to drape the sari while going to school…soon my brother took over..hard to admit, but I was bad at it and Amma never called me until it was really really needed…now bro is a pro in getting the sari pleats in place even for my bhabhi..
Me? I dont have the guts to wear saris at all 🙂
@R’s Mom, good for your Appa and brother, they really know what women want 🙂
Interesting read. Guess, as a kid when mom was putting a saree, I was like how they put it..it looks quite a task. Btw, I still don’t know how to fix a tie. Your points make sense.
@Vishal, yes, the Guest Author who wrote this post is quite worldly-wise, no doubts about that 🙂
lol.. by the way sari is 5.5m long.. and now a days trend is to wear mismatch.. so, it shouldnt be a prob. I agree shopping for a women is difficult.. glad that the writers daughter is willing to wear pavadai davani, my little one hates anything in silk/ jarri..I am not sure if the trend will last for long.
@ashreyamom, the Guest Author’s daughters, especially the younger one is known to change her preferences quite often, and I therefore won’t be too surprised if she outgrows this paavadai dhavani stage quite soon 😀
I am not too fond of Saris so I guess my husband is spared the experience 😛 But whenever I have had to drape one of them, he ensures that he stays away and prepare himself to answer the questions that will follow once I am done- “is the pallu ok?’ have I tied it too high?’ ‘Am I looking ok?’ 😛
Just remembered. during my MBA days for my Senior’s placements I had one duty in the hostel.. Seniors would drape the sari and then we juniors would iron the pleats to make them stay in place 😛
@Seeta, that is one way that the juniors would quite literally ‘fall at their seniors’ feet’ huh 😀
@Seeta, your husband is one of those lucky ones I guess 🙂 And yes, the questions you ask are pretty much the same ones my wife asks me whenever she drapes a sari 😀
Hahaha.. now I wonder if that’s the reason why my Seniors made us do it! 😛 and the questions, well I guess they are universal by nature but still the Man never learns 😛
@Seeta, glad to have opened your eyes to a new form of ‘ragging’ 🙂 And trust me when I say this, all us ‘men’ know that there are no ‘correct answers’ to questions like these at all 😉
LOL 😀 I actually love wearing sarees and for someone who is experienced it shouldnt take more than two minutes?! 😀
@greenboochi, good for you, you are one of those experienced mamis who drape saris in like ‘superhero’ times, huh 😀
hahaha ye saare I mean saree tips and saagas are funny and how true they are but saree indeed is a bful dress !
Nicely narrated 😀
@Afshan, welcome to the blog, long overdue I guess 🙂 and what you say about the sari is spot on, truly graceful and elegant dress, no doubts about that at all 🙂
:)…sarees are beautiful, but I am so uncomfortable in them….I have never learned how to wear them properly and never opts for one until I am thoroughly pressurised…but nowadays one can get a ready to wear saree…did u know that ? 🙂
@confusedhumanity, yes, I had heard of the ready to wear sarees but have never seen one myself though 🙂
Sari, as the Westerns say is a six yard wonder. Yes wonderful it is. Draping it is an art and carrying it is a bigger art but sari-wearers are on the decline.
@Kalpana, yes, sadly more so in the big cities of India. I guess the fact that places and offices are probably not too sari friendly are also not helping things either 😦
Not had any experience in this matter.. I dont remember anyone in our family wearing Saree’s
I love saris, and learnt to drape a sari when I entered college. We had to wear sari as Uniform , once a month, so that perfected the art. Practice reduces the time needed 🙂 Loved his tips, here 🙂 So true 😀 😀 And saris are less beautiful without accessories 😀
He should try writing about draping madisars / 18 muzham/9 gajam pudavais next 😀
( I learnt this the hard way, but now I’m a confident madisar draper too 😀 )
@Sreeja, well, given that you are quite the ‘experienced’ hand at draping saris, this post would have resonated well with you 🙂 Will surely pass on the suggestion of a guide to draping madisars to him, and knowing him, he will probably relish the idea of a post on this subject 😀
Nice post, but after a point of time I kept on counting “loved one” in my head. And then eventually started replacing it with someone/she/her/wife/girlfriend etc.
Rutvika, 😀
Ha ha A very interesting post Jairam. This post reminded me of my college farwell party where all of us had to wear Saree .I tried hard to wrap a Saree around me but all my efforts went in vain and I had to call Amma for help by keeping my ego aside .As she used to wrapping an Saree around you is not child play. That day she made me wear a Saree and shooed me to college. Disgusting I felt with it that day as I could not enjoy the party as a all my concentration went in taking care of the Saree.Hats off to all those women who can manage wearing a Saree the entire day😉.with ease