Kanchipuram Brown Silk. 25-year-old.
Rituvu: Delhi’s Hemanta (pre-winter).
"This is an old sari. Its muddy colour wasn’t likeable. It has been worn a few times, but now it needs a makeover!" – Nandita BasuChowdhury
Teacher. Designer. Mother.
Although packed with extreme energy, there is a soft charm about this soul. And it gets reflected when she hosts people or dons her enviable collection of saris. A bunch of these are her mother’s hand-dyed batik silks or pastel chikankaris, which she clubs with interesting pearls or other jewellery. “Other than my mom’s, I have more than 50 saris from different parts of India and save most for special occasions like Durga Puja, Diwali and other festivals. But now more than buying saris, I love designing my blouses. I have three or more for one sari.” She stocks her over-100 blouses in zippered suit bags in her wardrobe’s loft. “I borrowed the bags from my husband,” she quips. Her interests lie in travelling (almost every month to keep herself “mentally stable”), and working with weavers from various parts of India to design block-coloured saris. “I do not design and exhibit as much as before. But I want to do it more often now. I enjoy thinking through colour combinations. It makes me feel good,” she says. Guzzling dark coffee, binging on milk chocolate and Bengali sweets, indulging in long conversations with close friends, spending time with her “lovely daughters”, watching period movies and teaching at an NGO are her other weekly must-dos.
"These two saris are light and can be worn differently. They look interesting with the handwork." – Nandita BasuChowdhury