Soup/ Facebook
One of almost every Indian woman’s most precious inheritances is a sari that once belonged to her mother. Arts and humanities website Soup has beautifully showcased the memories and meanings laden in these nine yards of fabric. They featured women of different ages wearing their mothers' saris and taking a walk down memory lane.
Though the website approached nine women initially, their campaign on Facebook led to eight other women from different parts of the country (and one from London) eagerly sharing photographs of themselves draped in their mothers’ saris, along with a short yet beautiful story.
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Here they are:
Bhavna Kher, 34, Writer
Soup/ Facebook
"It took my mother six months to embroider this sari. The intricate Kashmiri embroidery is not easy to pull off - her back ached, her eyes strained but she didn't give up and eventually gave this to me as a wedding present. I know I will drape my mother's blessings, each time I drape this sari."
Shagun Seda Sengupta, 34, Creative Director
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This is a 23 year old pure chiffon sari from Mysore that my father gifted my mother. I love how it's so simple yet so striking. Since it was a gift from my father, I never had the nerve to ask my mother to give it to me. On her 60th birthday, in a fit of motherly love she finally gave me this sari."
Uma Prakash Shetty, 23 (in this photo), Homemaker
Soup/ Facebook
"As a young girl I loved raiding my mother's wardrobe and wearing her finest saris. Today my daughter does the same with mine."
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Preeti Verma, 33, Owner and Designer Runaway Bicycle
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This is a 35 year old Benarasi sari that my mother got as a wedding gift from my father's family. Over the years the sari tore in places but she loved it so much she darned it with bright green flowers. My mother's love for it makes this sari even more special to me."
Garima Sharma, 23, Freelance Writer
Soup/ Facebook
"The sari belonged to my nani. And even though it is a few years old, pink and looks like it was made for serene, elegant and god-fearing good girls, I adore it. When she was taken really ill, my nani still wore saris, and she kept this one for special occasions. It's not very well worn though because she passed away after a long battle with heart trouble. She was very important to me and her death affected me profoundly. I am very rootless about sentiment and in the wake of her death, some of the smaller islands of her life have remained in the form of the few precious items that I have inherited from her."
Hetal Ajmera, 35, Designer and partner, Sharpener Inc.
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"I like dressing comfortably, so I never wanted to wear a sari, I felt I would hate it. But we had one of those family functions where I had no choice but to wear one, so I picked this from my mom's cupboard. It was the first sari I wore, it was soft, easy and surprisingly very comfortable. I've loved wearing saris ever since."
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Bollamma Apaya, 82, Homemaker
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This is 53 years old, it's a Dharmavaram sari. It's a special memory for me because it is the last sari my mother gave me before she passed away."
Ankitha Sista, 25
Soup/ Facebook
" This is a 34-year old sari and my mother saved her salary for a couple of months to buy it because she set her heart on it when she saw it. Two decades later, this turned out to be my personal favourite, much to her surprise. She gave it away to me as a reminder of how we agreed on the same thing for once. "
Priyanka Bose, 34, Actor
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"25 years ago, my father bought this Dhakai sari for my mother from Bangladesh and she kept it aside for me. He always had immaculate taste for her when it came to saris. I always say, as we Bengalis don't inherit money, we inherit ma's saris."
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Archana, 23, Domestic Help
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This sari belonged to my aunt. My own mother passed away when I was very little, but my aunt brought me up like her own daughter. This is not a very old sari, but it was bought by my aunt for herself and she gave it to me because I loved it so much."
Supriya, 31, Ad Film Maker
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This is a 34 year old Benarasi sari that my mother wore for her wedding and when she passed it on to me, I wore it for mine."
Neepa Sheth, 49
Soup/ Facebook
Sheth is wearing a 26 year old Kanjeevaram sari that was passed down from her mother as part of her wedding trousseau - Soup
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Diksha Basu, 32, Writer and Occasional Actor
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This is one of the first saris I took from my mother because I love the colour scheme. We both wear a lot of red and black. These days we share our saris but when I wear this particular one I see flashes of my mother whenever I catch my reflection."
Shilpa Colluru, 33, Marketing Professional
Soup/ Facebook
"My mother was a teacher and she was known to never repeat her saris even for a single day. I've inherited her love for saris."
Yalini Murukathas, 25, Legal Caseworker
Soup/ Facebook
"My father bought this Kanjivaram silk sari for my mother days before he passed away. I was 9 years old. He used to lavish her with gifts so this is one of many, but one day I found a photo of Amma standing beside him draped in this sari. He looked so happy. I like to think he would have been at least half as happy had he been here to see me in it 16 years later."
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Nirmala Mayur Patil, 33, Writer/Photographer
Soup/ Facebook
"As orphans and beginning their life together from scratch, this first mysore silk sari papa got for ma meant a great deal for both. For me today, although aged and fraying around the edges, it narrates their tale and is a tangible reminder of where I came from."
Ankita Kohli, 28, Freelance Creative Consultant
Vijit Gupta/ Soup
"This is one of my mother's college saris. A part of me always wonders about my mother as a young college girl when I now wear this sari as a grown woman."
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