Jyotsna Mohlajee -- Saree Speak

There is always time and day to celebrate women in my life.

 That list can be long but today is my mother-in-law's turn. When I met her she was a petite person in her late sixties.

Whenever Women's Day comes around I think of her and the stories of her growing up years at her parental home in Calcutta and later in her in-laws home.

Her mother passed away when she was young and the girls were not sent to school by most families.  So elder brother was teacher for her as well as elder sister & sister-in-law. They learnt all subjects except English, maybe just the alphabet. Did not see the inside of a school but could read, write and solve math problems up to sixth or seventh grade. Mil (Mother in law) taught all her kids up to third to fifth grade at home before enrolling them in school

Anyways, after getting married in Lahore, more rigorous training began...

Her mother-in-law, let's call her Chaiji, again not a formally educated lady was very worldly wise and progressive in views as she could travel around country . It was all due to her father-in-law's railway job that brought in yearly travel passes. She kept her three daughter-in-laws busy teaching them all the skill needed to run a house, make clothes at home, even weaving and prepping yarn. My mil talked about combing and carding wool by hand to make scarves and shawls.

My mil talked about so many changes and progress seen in her lifetime from running tap water inside the house to electricity in the homes, to later when we used computers, how she could visit family via Skype or messenger etc. And in-between that so many other inventions.

The beauty of her journey with her own mil, Chaiji was that although they were not going out a lot like we do now, they were kept informed about what is new about women's health topics. My mil related about how the ladies went to watch documentaries on Womens' health, hygiene, how diseases spread and how to control them. This is circa 1920-35.. I thought that was neat for that time. She had a loving/caring mil, Chaiji and we had our mil who was so caring too.

(On a lighter note, just after I got married, our niece who was about two and a half and was visiting for the first time from US would get bored at home and mil who did not speak any English, tried to tell her parents or my husband to take her outside to go shopping or such.  She would say " Enu shocking le jaao"🤩

Later when she moved to US, sometimes when we were not home and the phone rang and she happened to pick up the phone, she managed to say to the caller, "Not home".) 

                                                                                                     

 Today I am wearing one of her sarees, probably thirty year old beautiful Assam silk Jamdani(a hand loom woven fabric made of cotton, which was historically referred to as muslin. ... It is one of the most time and labor-intensive forms of hand loom weaving, and is considered one of the finest varieties of muslin, and the most artistic textile of Bangladeshi weavers.) weave in off white with green border and pallu (decorated end of a sari that hangs loose when worn) with multi colored woven/embroidered patterns between wide light blue bands. I am also wearing her cotton blouse with slight alteration only.