This past saturday, K and I went to Circuit city to get me a printer. Anyway the store was jam packed with people buying stuff and I bumped into a few desis, where else but in the computer section. This is height of stereotyping! Anyway I was accosted by an ever zealous Epson salesman, who started extolling virtues of an Epson printer vis-a-vis a HP, which is what I was buying. I was in no mood to listen to any sales talk so play dumb by telling him in the thickest possible Indian accent that I really can't speak english and don't understand anything about printers. I point towards my husband, who irritates me to no end because he is like a kid in a candy shop whenever we go to any electronics store, and ask them to talk to him. I take my preferred printer and walk up to the cashier and wait in the long line. The reason for doing this of course is so that the guy starts bugging K who would then get the hell out of there! K glares at me and if looks could kill....you know what I mean!
While we are waiting in the line, our physician, who is from India walks in with a woman wearing a saree. I point him out to K and we both assume that perhaps he has some relative visiting from India. We greet him and he introduces us to the woman, who incidentally is his wife. They have been living in the US for the past 35 years. I was so surprised that she was wearing a saree when it was 20 F! The doctor was wearing a sweater, scarf and a leather jacket and gloves and this lady was wearing a saree with just a winter jacket. I really cannot understand why some Indian women wear sarees no matter what the temperature. This was a casual saree that our mothers would wear in India and not something festive.
I remember a few years ago my childhood friend got married in Indianapolis in the month of January. He married an American and they had the tedious Hindu ceremony in the morning, which started at 8 AM and ended at noon, followed by lunch, church wedding at 2:30 PM and then the reception in the evening. The previous day there was a massive snow storm in the mid-west and it was freezing cold. I remember wearing a saree the entire day and how I almost died of hypothermia! I cannot understand how these women can tolerate this temperature. People who live in colder parts of the country like Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh don't wear sarees but clothes that help them adapt to the cold weather. So then why would a person, who has lived for a major part of her life in the States, not want to give up her saree which is designed for the tropical weather? Enquiring minds want to know.
13 comments:
sheer vanity?! ;)
Guys in a gadget store! Maybe the woman felt wearing the saree is a part of her identity? Maybe she was wearing thermals under?
You folks are doing a very good thing with the person who helps out at home. Most people would not bother. Good karma there!
As for old parents, tell me about it. Mine are stubborn and a bit set in their ways, it's hard to get the idea in their heads that they are better off with full time help of sorts. :-/
@Magiceye: I don't think is vanity....it is wearing Indianness on their sleeves.
@Sanjay: Guys in a gadget store....GRRRR.
Well for most Indian women in India the saree defines who they are but she lives here and that is why I find it so amusing.
My folks are pretty stubborn as well.
Doctor's wife needs to wear some tights or panty hose underneath!!:D
Orelse, eww...I don't want to say it!
@Asha: I know what you mean!
Perhaps she is a creature of habit? :)
Like Asha says, I sure hope she wore something warm under her sari!!! Speaking of saris, do you have many opportunities to wear one? I wore one for Diwali this year, but in a group of around 12 women, I was the only one. Fewer and fewer people are opting to do so. Most were dressed in fabulously stylish salwaar sets.
Guess some ppl find it difficult to accept change... so even if the docs wife started living in US she still wanted to cling to India. I know of a lady living in the UK who migrated there in the early 60's and always wore a saree. infact when he boss told her not to she told him that wearing the saree didn't stop her from doing any of the things at work that girls in western clothes did!!!
@Lotus: Well if my mom visits here I am sure she will not leave her saree in India but I know K's aunts who are in their sixties and have been living here since the 1960s who wear pants, skirts etc. mainly because of the convenience and as soon as they land in Bombay they will wear sarees, mangalsutra etc.
I do not have any Indian friends here (except people I knew from home) but I definitely wear sarees whenever I get the chance. I noticed too that for this Diwali all the older women were wearing sarees while women of our generation were in these rather pretty salwar kameezes.
@Shruti: Well change is one thing that is certain in life. I guess you and I know this the most, don't we! The more openly you accept it the better and easier your life becomes.
If one really needed to wear the indian-ness on their sleeves, they could be smart and wear a salwar kameez.. much more opportunity to layer inside nahi?
I do agree with you though, why not dress warm atleast in the winter. Do you think it's just not being able to accept the fact that they'll be here for good and this is a lil rebelious act? We've finally convinced my MIL to wear jeans and sweaters @ 60. I have to say she looks real cute.
I haven't had the chance to wear my saris. Maybe two if I got lucky. I'm into the smart trendy salwar kameezes these days. And yes, next year when I go to Dubai, I do plan to take 'em all including the mangalsutra ;)
@ Tamanna: LOL I totally agree about dressing warm!
Also why must one wear one Indianness on your sleeve especially when one lives in America and has naturalized as a citizen. Come on staying warm should be the top priority!
I do wear my mangalsutra once in a while here in the US to shock the hell out of my husband. He thinks it is rather funny when I do anything conventional. He says that I am rebelling against my natural rebellious nature and contradicting myself...lol!
I went to Niagra falls 3 weeks back & it was freezing out there(Yes this is not the right season to go there BUT my bro was visiting me all the way from Australia)I saw a lady wearing silk sari standing on top of the whatever bridge it was wearing light jacket & I thought the samething you mentioned.
Stay warm & beautiful :)
@Sugarlips: Oh my God....she must be freezing!
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