Sept 21, 2019 – My closest friend Sirisha and dearest cousin Koka’s birthday !
I continued my tradition of wearing a new saree on the most important day in each month all through this year and September was even more special because there are two important days in this month. The first being Sept 7th, the day Krishnan and I got married, of course. The next day is Sept 21st.
The first person to be born that day is my cousin, my eldest aunt’s son Koka. Koka has been a mainstay of my life. He was the first one to meet Krishnan before we got married. He was the first one whom I informed when Appa passed away. His mother was the first one to see me in this world. Besides all the firsts, in nearly all phases of my life, Koka has been of immense support. He spent all his working life in ECIL doing non-chemistry stuff while being an ardent fan of Chemistry and one of the best teachers of that subject. When I completed my B.Sc, I handed over every book on Chemistry that I could find in the house to him because I never liked Chemistry :):). What a roller coaster ride he has had …. and now his daughters are putting him through a fast paced roller coaster, especially the younger one, Manasa. Serves him right though, instead of escaping to play “Bridge” he is now dealing with Manasa’s profound statements and difficult questions and revelling in Mridula’s brilliant academic performance. I wish he picks up his old love for Tamil literature and begins to travel more.
The second person to be born on Sept 21st is someone I met in KVAFA, Dindigul in 10th std. Sirisha and I became best of friends and have remained that way since 1983.. Our watching the owls in AFA to our long letters to each other to attending each other’s wedding to Revanth being born as an Arian … we have been around in each other’s life throughout. There is nothing that Siru doesn’t know about my life and vice versa. And yeah she and Koka are friends too. Interestingly, as I do every year I reminded Amma to wish Siru this year too on her birthday and sent her Sirisha’s number. My dear mother goes to Koka’s house to wish him and complains to him that I never sent her Siru’s number. Koka resolved the issue by calling Sirisha and both of them wished her. For my mother, from amongst my friends, Geetu and Sirisha are the best as they have each had a child while Vidya and I chose not to have any. She still loves Vidya because of the common Hanuman connection but hopes that I could be more like Geetu or Siru. Its just hope and there is no law against hoping :):).
This year on Sept 21st, to celebrate Koka and Siru’s birthday, I wore a Coimbatore silk that I had bought from Cooptex online. I had actually bought it as a gift for someone but couldn’t let go of the beautiful saree. Its lightweight and has silver zari work all over. We were taking the train from Zagreb to Vienna really early in the morning that day. When Krishnan took the following pictures and I sent them to Siru, her reaction was “did the railway folks there know that they have a celebrity riding the train today and so they matched the upholstery with the colour of your saree?” I told her it was merely coincidence but its a remarkable coincidence !
The motifs on the saree are, the Mayil (peacock) motif is all over the body and Mayil inside a chakram (circle) motif is on the Pallu. I loved wearing this saree and the colour just pops. The neckpiece is from Desh Maheswari, Noida. Cooptex has brought out such beautiful sarees that its difficult to buy from anywhere else, especially when you know for sure that the money reaches the weaver for his or her beautiful creation.
Wishing Koka and Siru a very happy birthday yet again and sending a bus load of good wishes their way. Thank you both for being who you are.
#WearHandloom #Cooptex #HandwovenSaree #IWearHandloom
