Saree

Sunday I wore my saree to church. I'd put it on kind of in a hurry because we had very little time to eat lunch before we had to go. I thought I did a pretty good job of it, especially for doing it so quickly. Durga poked her head in while we were gulping down our food and saw me in it. "Saree!" she said. I would have said "No problem," but fortunately my mouth was full, and by the time I swallowed I'd realized that that would have been a non sequitur.

Before Relief Society started Sister Dashri asked me who had helped me with my saree. "I did it myself," I proudly told her.

"You tried," she said consolingly. She and several other ladies told me that they'd help me with it after the meeting. I hope some of them were able to concentrate on the lesson in the meantime.

After the meeting was over they converged on me, pinned and unpinned, pulled, folded, and draped, and finally I was respectable looking.

As we were going home afterward, several of our neighbor ladies saw us and complimented the saree. Also when we went out later that evening, all the ladies smiled happily at me in my saree. I think that's my favorite thing about wearing one, how happy it seems to make all the Indian women. They seem to take it as a personal compliment. And I suppose it is.

On a side note, for those of you who have been eagerly waiting to know whether or not wearing a saree is a disadvantage when playing Nertz, (which I'm sure is most of you), I'm pleased announce that a saree does not interfere whatsoever with playing Nertz. I wish I could say the same about going up stairs, getting in and out of rickshaws, and walking, but I suppose you can't have everything in life.