Embroidered Sari from Bengal

I wanted to share with you this sari, which was bought for me by my friend. She is from a village in West Bengal. So when ever she visits her native place, she visits Kolkata (earlier known as Calcutta) where some of her relatives stay. She usually brings many saris, dress materials and accessories etc from there for all of us and I bought this from her.

I love cotton saris. This one is baby pink coloured  fine cotton sari embroidered with blue and green cotton threads. The fabric looks like organza. The threads are coarse and looks like dyed ones. All through Satin stitch has been used. You can see how beautifully the artisans from Bengal have embroidered the sari. Mind you, the embroidery is not perfectly done, yet it is beautiful.

 This the border of the sari. Simple vine with blue and green threads.

  

Another view of the border. The sari has borders both at the top (only the portion where it is visible) and at the bottom.

The small flowers  known as booties cover the entire sari.

This is the pallu heavily embroidered.

The vines have been embroidered accross the pallu.

A closer look.

In the corners of the pallu this design has been embroidered.

I love this sari because of its baby pink colour and good combination of the colours used.  It is simple yet attractive. But it is a bit difficult to maintain, because one has to starch it and then ironing requires more heat. This may result in fading of the colours with repeated washing and ironing.

TAST-2010

OMG!

I have so much to catch up. week after week it is piling up.

Though I have completed some stitches, I need to photograph them and post them.....I am always the late Kate?

I also need to experiment with many stitches of TAST. I have become lazy now....I will do it some how...I need to ......

Indian Monsoons

Monsoon Time

It is Monsoon time here. At last ! we are having rains, when all of across the country had to face severe heat this time. The temperatures were more than the previous years. Of course this was mostly due to our careless attitude towards our environment-felling of trees, encroaching lands and illegal constructions and many more such things. Every one thinks what he has done is very little. But that very little adds up to a lot. People like us who follow the mandatory rules while constructing houses, maintaining greenery, and water soaking pits are rare as Dodos. 

I have a very small patch of land where me and my mom do our best to cram in as much vegetation as possible. We work hard, all our spare time, money and energy go into it. Oh! the fruits of labour are always sweet-when we sit back and enjoy the little visitors like the birds, insects, monkeys when they visit our garden. We feel so proud that at least we are able to provide them with little shelter and some food.

But boy! it is very difficult in summer months to maintain them with the problems we are facing due to paucity of water. We store the water used for washing clothes and filter it and use in our garden. The funny part is even when we want to spare some money and buy water it is difficult. So Money cannot buy everything. 

Any way our woes are gone now with the onset of rains.

If Indian Summers are Heat and dust, our Monsoons are humid, cool and down pours. If it rains heavily even for an hour, most of our roads and some of the residential areas are water logged. There are traffic jams and public transport is not so easily available. Our roads go from bad to worse and become very uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous to travel. Now walking in the rain is fun. As a child I had many excuses to get wet in the rains. But walking on the roads and getting splashed by the mud is some other thing. LOL! Mothers have a tough time dealing with mud stains on childrens uniforms. In villages and towns one has no other go but to walk on the muddy roads and slippery slush. So choosing proper footwear and umbrellas or rain coats is necessary. 

But still Indian Monsoons are time to celebrate. India being a Country of Villages, our rural folk wait for it eagerly. Farmers till their lands, manure it and keep ready for the rains. Our cattle get green fodder only after proper rainfall. The Monsoon starts from June 1st and continue till September. The Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, the mighty Himalayas, the Western Ghats-all these help in bringing us the Monsoons. Around 80% of our rainfall is dependant on these Monsoons. Monsoons strike Andaman and Nicobar Islands first and then The State of Kerala. Kerala receives highest rainfall in South India. South Indian States also receive rains till December-January due to retreating monsoons.

Nearly 70% of our population being rural depend on agriculture and its subsidiary industries. Most of our rivers especially the ones in South India like The Godavari, Krishna Cauvery etc are all rain fed. North Indian rivers, like the Ganga, Yamuna etc originate from the Himalayas are snow fed during summer and rain fed during Monsoons. Our agriculture cultivating, rice, cotton, tobacco, oil seed, sugar cane and pulses etc are dependent on rains. 

Late on set of Monsoons, or untimely rains, or storms and typhoons do damage our agriculture to such an extent that our farmers are not sure till they can harvest and reap their crop. Many a time they lose it either at the time of harvesting or even after a harvest if the rains strike suddenly. So Monsoons can either make or mar our economy.

Crisp fried Vadiyaalu

Roasted or fried  Poppadoms 

What I love about the Monsoons and rains is that, it is cloudy sky, cool temperatures. We love to eat hot spicy Samosas, crisp vadiyaalu, Bajjis(vegetable fritters) and Pakodis (Onion Fritters) and other spicy food with hot tea or coffee. 

It also brings joy to my plants-more flowers and fruits. You know the green colour in the leaves after first few rains is something no amount of watering can achieve. It is the time we re pot, plant new ones and improve our garden. 

Hot N spicy Tea.-I don't much like the tea bag variety though. I love the usual Indian Chai brewed traditionally. How it is done I am going to do a post in mu other blog on Food.

The months of Ashadha, Sravana, Bhadrapada, bring us many festivals to celebrate. Which I will post as we celebrate. 

More to come on Monsoons....Keep a watch on my blog

This post to dedicated to Sigrid and family who like to learn more about India and Indian life style and have motivated me to write this post.... Thank you Sigrid.