"From Childhood Curiosity to Saree Advocacy: My Journey of Embracing Tradition"

My real saree journey began very early, as I grew up in the vicinity of the rattling of the looms in the place where I grew up and spent the rest of my childhood growing up. It never dawned on me till then that it is indeed one of the finest dress adages that is, per se, the identity of our being Indian and the true identity of an Indian woman. It was at a much later age that this unique drape dawned in my life, where other versions of saree weaves made locally and in the surrounding districts and talukas were worn in true nauvari style very differently from the traditional Indian saree drape. It was probably at the age of 11 or 12 in Mumbai, a year after my switch to watching movies and Bollywood fashion, that this idea of a saree dawned upon me as a flower ready with its bud to grow and give
a full blossom. I had started questioning all my urban friends and relatives about the hang-ups about the saree. I felt so attracted to sarees, yet I kept telling myself, After I turn 20, I'll ask my sister and then my wife to wear only sarees. Until one day, a voice in my head asked, Why? Why 20? What am I waiting for? Obviously, there was no logic behind this thought. So I discarded it, bought a few handloom sarees as I started earning early, and started gifting them to my loved ones for them to start wearing them to various places casually. The first few times, I was met with curious glances and asked the typical question: What’s the occasion? But I didn’t mind because I got many compliments too. Soon, I started documenting my daily outfits on my small dairy, which I religiously wrote and filled up. However, saree-wearing was still limited fortitude because of the advent of other optional comforts, such as easy-to-wear ensembles and dresses, and saree draping was limited to twice or three times a month.

My much later years, in May mid-2010's, say the advent of social media in full swing, I decided to dedicate my time, energy, and effort to promote, advocate, patronize, and sell sarees to not only the saree wearers but honestly to a large section and generation who only wore sarees for a complete week and also share the pictures on these social media platforms. My saree sales week was inspired by the veteran craft activists and travel bloggers from and around Maharashtra and other states who reached out to me through these platforms. My share of monthly saree collages got a boost, and then came the dreaded COVID and lockdown with their shares on the growth of social media. Coincidentally, Central Politicians and Ministers like the Late Mrs.Indira Gandhi, Shiela Dixit, Pupul Jayakar, Indian First Women Ms. Patil, Sushma Swaraj, and Smriti Irani launched that very saree patronization week. I promptly used it in one of their posts, and it followed suit! This gave my impetus as a Paithani saree manufacturer a big boost.

However, I cannot deny that every coin has its flipside and lockside. COVID started meandering its way out; the lifestyles of the whole world had changed, and the Indian subcontinent couldn't be left behind. OTT platforms, online shopping, and the absolute dominance of social media and artificial intelligence technological advancements raised a few questions in my head, like: What does culture mean in a modern lifestyle, and the ever-growing vastness of urbanization to connect and convert the rural to urban and the urban to megapolis? Is globalization synonymous with the complete loss of cultural identities? Is wearing culturally-rooted clothes in sync with a city and modernization that thrives on and the movement of retailorship the biggest known transition for the world’s conversion of the largest shopping malls that house the biggest fashion brands into online platform presence and advocacy? Textiles with centuries of history look harmonious against the backdrop of the world’s tallest skyscrapers and swanky cars zipping around the crisscrossing network of wide roads. This is my question to all of you. We shall explore this in my next blog. Till then, enjoy your basant or Advent of Spring with the color yellow.