See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the sari queen.

Today at work was Sari/Kurta day. Thanga was kind enough to let me borrow one of hers (it was brand new too) and it fit perfectly!


(Yes, the pic is slightly blurry. I will buy a dedicated camera soon.)

It took 3 people to help me wrap the sari and put it on. I felt like a doll because I would just stand still with my arms up, and they would wrap the sari around me as if playing dress-up. And I've never liked dress-up growing up, but this was really interesting to watch!

For those of you who don't know, the sari consists of a skirt, a midriff blouse, and then a 5-meter rectangular piece of cloth wrapped on top of the skirt and blouse. There's a technique to creating all of the folds and pleats, and the style of folding differs in every state.

Throughout the day, I received tons of compliments about the sari. I'm sure I stood out because I was the non-Indian wearing a sari, but I didn't mind. In fact, I think everyone was pleasantly surprised. It was a little difficult for me to walk around though because it fell right above my feet. Walking on a flat ground was fine, but walking up the stairs was a horrible mess. I also kept rolling my chair on top of the sari, so I must've gotten stuck and fallen over at least 3 times.

At the end of the day, there was a contest to announce the sari queen and kurta king. When asked to guess who the winner was, everyone started saying "Diane". (!!!) So whaddaya know ... I won!!!

I AM THE SARI QUEEN!

Not bad for my first time, huh? :)

I couldn't have done it without Thanga, who loaned me the sari, as well as Ipshita and Pavarthi who wrapped it and checked on me throughout the day to make sure I was okay.

Wearing the sari was fun. I've vowed to buy one before I leave India. I think it costs about 600 Rs, and someone said they'd be willing to go with me to buy one sometime after work. They'll also give me simple instructions for folding it, since there are like 100 ways to do it. So, if you have a chance to wear a sari, you should do it. They're so pretty, very cool, very fun.

I never thought I'd see the day that I would wear a skirt to work.