This is Really Getting Ridiculous

I thought I was so clever. You should have seen it…

I had to wear the same sari three days in a row for the three carol services that I was to perform in this past weekend. On the first day, I found one of my favorite sari-wrappers to dress me up really nice in the gorgeous off-white material. Then, when I went to take it off later that evening, I kept all of the pins and pleats in place and made sure to fold it up in such a way that I would be able to just put it back on the next day with no trouble at all.

But it wasn’t no trouble at all, at all! There I was, the following evening, thinking I had beat the system. I started to wrap the already-pinned sari around my waist, but I still could not figure out what to do with all that material left at the top – and I had left it all pinned in place!!! Oh well, off to find that sari-wrapper once again. She laughed and chided me (as she always does) for not tying my skirt tight enough. “But how will I breathe?” I thought. And anyway, that’s the least of my problems with the sari. Dressed beautifully by someone else’s hands, I was off again.

Later that evening, thinking I had learned my lesson, as I unwrapped the sari, I placed even more pins in it to hold it in place. Any Indian woman would have sent me to the nearest loony bin – putting pins in a sari you’re taking off!!! But I had a plan. The next night, I went to wrap myself in that sari for the last time – and I was going to do it all by myself…

…or not.

Again, I got the bottom fixed around my waist and tucked into my really tightly-tied skirt, but I just couldn’t figure out what to do with the rest. Too ashamed to face the same sari-wrapper again, I headed to another part of Chacko Homes for help. And when I got to where I was going, more hands fretted with the material to make it even more perfect.

Later that night a friend asked me who had helped me put it on. I smiled and replied, “It took no less than five people’s hands to get this sari on me tonight.” Seriously, this is getting ridiculous!!!