Tag Archives: sari

STF in India: Sari Shopping with the Graduates!

Know what makes a graduation ceremony roughly 1,000 times better? When you get to wear a sari instead of a dorky set of Harry Potter robes. Each year, the founder of Shanti Bhavan Dr. George takes the graduating girls to get saris (with matching slippers and jewelry, of course), and we got to tag along this time.

That pile on the right was about a foot high and 6 feet wide by the time we were finished

A sari is a single strip of cloth, wrapped around the waist (into a petticoat, usually) and then draped over the shoulder. They’ve been worn for as long as history has chronicled fashion, which is…well, a long time. Once the girls picked out the saris they wanted to try on, the store attendant wrapped them up, while former SB grads, Doc George and the rest of the girls gave their opinion. Of course no one agreed on anything, but eventually they made their choices. I was absolutely no help, since I apparently have awful taste in saris (who knew?). Luckily, their other advisers were more helpful. Check it out; the colors alone are worth staring at for at least twenty minutes:

(photos by the talented and all-time best travel partner Kate Lord)

Jancy tries on a sari

The wrapping process? Not as effortless as it looks.

Maheshwari debates which she'll pick

Divya all done up!

My one and only accepted sari suggestion

Kate looks pretty fantastic in blue, right?

Graduation day will definitely be colorful!

And you guys–while I was writing this post, I heard this amazing music coming from downstairs in the school building. So I meander over, and Kumar, one of the graduates, was sitting at the piano, without sheet music, creating a song that literally stopped me in my tracks. It’s his own composition, which he’s been working on for (only!) a week. I know we spend most of our time here talking about the women, but these guys are going places, too. Here’s a bit of his music:

Beautiful, right?