AlyTalksALot: Saree Safari

Well, I'm in India, and Sarees are gorgeous. Even the ones that the ladies who sweep the street with brooms made of sticks are pretty! So naturally, I wanted one.

Then I found out Praveen was getting married and realized I had the perfect excuse to 'need' a saree. So I dragged three girls from the Checkout team out shopping with me one night after work--little did they know what they were getting themselves into! Since as Taylor knows, I am the most indecisive person in earth, especially when it comes to shopping.

Kamalika, Amrita and I hopped in the car from work and headed to Secunderbad through the traffic. We did a little gossiping, a little more getting to know each other. It's funny how similar Google offices are across the world--this is their first job out of college, they live with other Googlers, work with other Googlers (duh), and hang out outside of the office with other Googlers--sounds just like home!

Anyway, to the first store we went. I had this fixed idea in my head of the kind with the border, and not too flashy. But I quickly found out that the ones I thought were so pretty were stiffer material, which means 1) way harder to wrap and pleat and 2) it's not very flattering b/c it can get wrinkled and bunchy...moved on to the more flowy material as soon as they mentioned the word bunchy, i'm bunchy enough...

Swetha, the saree expert met us, and we realized that this store was not for Aly, so we headed next door. We had a seat and they started showing me sarees. So hard to tell when they are all folded up! They all look kind of pretty, but how do you know? That's when the fun part comes in...

Trying on a saree consists of men draping it over you and then showing you kind of what the blouse will look like--I just kept making fun of them for trying to lift up my skirt-I made the dude blush. But here were my options:

I picked the blue one. But then we went upstairs so i could get fitted for the blouse. Of course, while I was getting fitted the girls started looking at material for salwar, and when I was done getting measured I joined in! I left with a saree and a salwar on the way! Swetha was sweet enough to offer to come back and pick them up for me, since the store is right by her house. Really though, shopping in India doesn't have that instant gratification perk that it does in the US, in the US you can bring your stuff home, try it on, and even wear it to work the next day. In India you've gotta wait a few days while you think about how pretty what you bought is and try to explain it to people before you actually get to have it in your possesion.

So the next week she brought them to me at the office--and of course all the girls told me to go and try them on in the bathroom. Swathi came in with me to make sure the blouse fit correctly--those things are funny, they are half shirts half front close bras. But it fit just right, and thank goodness there are yards and yards of fabric draped over it! Then I tried on the salwar and skipped around the office showing everyone my new outfit!

Then everyone asked how I planned to wrap it. HA. I hadn't gotten that far--but figured I would just have one of them help me when the time came....I decided to use this little search engine called Google to look up how to wrap a saree--the internet is useful for all sorts of things!

With 'Sari Safari' as my guide (did you really think I was that original with my titles?) and a few glasses of wine in me Friday night, we decided to do a little practice for Saturday.

Rahul said I was close, but Priz thought I was showing a lil too much tummy, I agreed because I felt a little like a belly dancer!

...Somehow Saturday night I managed to do it right, after spending all of Saturday studying every woman I saw wrapped in a Saree--I'll show them staring! When I saw Ismail in the parking lot he said I was 99.5% Hyderabadi, and when I got to the wedding everyone asked who wrapped my saree for me, then gasped in amazement when I told them I did it myself, with no pins. I WIN!