Major Love: Of Ethnic Fabrics and Bazubands (Armlets)

I have always been a huge fan of handloom and ethnic fabrics.  I saw this dupatta hanging in the shop window of a random store in Mumbai that I would pass everyday.  It was the kind of inconvenient location where there was not even a pavement to walk on, let alone stop your car and alight! So I would pass the premises, admire the duppatta in the window, and promise myself that one day I would stop close by and walk through that door.  Often when you finally do this, you are disappointed that the item in the window does not really look like what you had conjured up in your imagination.  That did not happen in this case – not only was the dupatta gorgeous in real life but he had them in all kinds of gorgeous colours! I really could have bought them all, but I managed to reign in my hoarding instinct and settled on this beautiful black and white one. I then saw the handloom material for the shirt many months later at Delhi Haat and just knew that they would go well together. I am so glad that I entered that shop and bought this cotton dupatta – I love the design and colours and I always get so many compliments when I wear it!

I have always had a fascination for those ‘rare’ pieces of jewellery that we all know exist, but it’s not that often that you see people wearing them.  These would include pieces like the passa or jhumar (which I know has had a revival recently), and the bazuband. When I saw this bazuband in a shop on the Mall in Darjeeling, I wanted it immediately!  Of course, I talked myself out of it, and wandered around for many hours thinking about it as one does.  By the evening,  my husband was so sick of hearing about it that he marched me back into the shop and insisted I buy it on the spot!   Who was I to argue with hubby and it would have been rude to say no – so I finally relented and agreed to purchase it after a suitable haggling episode with the shopkeeper. Again, it’s been major love for this piece ever since and I always compliment my husband on his astute decision making skills whenever I wear it!