Katha Saree Sagaram

Families, for long have had the tradition of buying wedding sarees from Kanchipuram. With all the new, glitzy shops in Chennai many families still travel to Kanchi, for not only they associate Kanchi with good silk, but also auspicious to buy there in the presence of Kamakshi – not many would skip worshipping the Devi, to seek her blessings after the sarees are bought. I remember in my childhood accompanying my paatti to Kanchipuram on few such occasion. Bharati bus ride from Arakkonam, and then a jatka or Ameer bus from Gangana mandapam to Adisanpettai. It was standard, Lakshmi Vilas – there was a bit of confusion there were a few Lakshmi named shops one after another. Paatti cleared her confusion with the one she wanted, standing Lakshmi logo was her shop. It was never crowded like it is these days. Those Lakshmi shops have also been gone for long, though some old names like Pachaiappas, or Anna Co-op are all there. I had not shopped in Kanchi from then till a few y

There are still many posts pending - but I am jumping in to put out the latest just to establish the connection with the previous post where I talked about Kanchi silk going to Kamakhya Devi. It was my second visit to North East, and was thrilled to be going around Guwahati before heading to Arunachal Pradesh for the BNHS camp at Namdapha. Tickets were booked five months in advance even as my friend Anuradha and I struggled to convince our families about the trip perceived "risky". Travelling from west to east we find it difficult to come to terms with the time difference. We thought we had a whole evening ahead to visit a few temples at Guwahati as we landed at 1 pm. But, we barely managed to see Brahmaputra and the Umananda that is in an island hillock. We were told Sunday would be impossible to have darshan at Kamakhya. Monday morning we had darshan at Kamakhya and in between we had managed to visit a rhino sanctuary at Pobitara and a 6th century Hayagriv-Mad

Incorrigible preserver .... I can't throw away things that easily. This is a Dhaniakhali (I mostly hear it as Dhonekali when spoken)  #100Sareepact  was bought long before it got branded as Mamta saree. They are cool, simple and inexpensive, at least not those elaborately woven Tants. Though Mamta is supposed to have revived the fortunes of these plain sarees. they are not easily available, for even  in Kolkata during my last trip one had to seek them out...the shopkeeper at Gariahat asked "railway minister sarees?", (yes in 2010 she was still a railway minister). This blue and white has been with me since 1993, bought at Cottage Industries on Chowringhee...Dhaniakhali' s are special to me - the first long distance trip I ever made in life was to Kolkata in 1985, and bought two of them for a princely sum of 55 and 60 rupees. Now, I sound like "andha kalathula naan collegela padikkarppo...."