itsviji2952

[itsviji2952]

Black & White #worlisealink #bombay #cityscape #bridge #skyline (at Bandra–Worli Sea Link)

[itsviji2952]

#selfie #sunset #glow #wintersky (at Bandra fort Garden)

[itsviji2952]

#sunset #100sareepact #wintersky #bliss #worlisealink (at Bandra fort Garden)

[itsviji2952]

You will be happy to know she enjoyed her choice from the menu on the blackboard #Christmas

[itsviji2952]

141/100 #100sareepact Merry Christmas !!! I wonder if by the end of the year , this awesome 200 Saree Pact year I will do 150 . Maybe . Maybe not . It means 9 more in 6 days ...let us see . Christmas Eve in this really uniquely crowded printed Tussar silk that's like something I've never worn before ! I wore it last year for our family gathering in Madras when all our siblings and our spouses were together with Maiji . Took it out today for a trip to Bandra to meet friends and a couple of errands and well , you cannot NOT be in Bandra on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere is something else and dear Ravi and I spent a beautiful half hour at the Bandra Fort bedrocks marveling at the sun as he set and of course so many photographs for the pact were taken and all of them so good they have to be featured !!! My good deed for the day was done as over 60 books from my newly organized book shelves going their way to the little stall in OMO whose profits from their sale job to the HOPE Foundation. And then to the AE Bakery for the mandatory Coffee and Cake with Jude . A lovely surprise awaiting got there was Lily , the feisty owner looking gorgeous in a Saree and of course is bullied into posing for the pact ! Her charming young grandson finally getting her to pose and taking our picture !!! What a rush today there was and oh the Christmas Cake to die for . A quick look at the beautiful Nativity Scene in the Holy Family Parking Lot and Jude's new car duly admired and yes photographed for the pact and then a wonderful dinner at Sunanda and Suranjana's lovely apartment with our other Sunanda. We drank and ate and laughed and sang whole Georgie . Suranjana's charming husband took these pictures . Merry Christmas indeed .

[itsviji2952]

140/100 #100sareepact Grandparents' Day Out ! Succeeded in dragging the old man out for a lunch and dinner date . Lunch with son and film starring La Padukone being the double carrot . No matter he came away more enamored of Kashi than Mastani . It's great to take time off from work and be at home and do things you never get time to do otherwise . At least Day 1 of long awaited break set a good example . Lunch with beta, family visits , a movie ... The Saree is a Fab India silk/cotton which never made up its mind whether to be orange or pink . I have loved the sunset sky feel of its shades forever . It crushes a bit for an all day Saree but holds its own .., So lunch at Soam in Babulbath ( why not Som why Soam ? ) our first time there . Hmmmm always something new to find and do in Bombay even after 42years . Great food Swati Snacks style , nice service and great location . Though a rather perilous perch on the shoulder of the road for the Pact Photo . Son did a good job though ! We tried to get the poor color coordinated flowers struggling to survive out there in the background you see :) Then back to catch the film and en route Chai with dear cousin and aunt and then doing the Thatha Pati at the Mall picture for the grandkids and bumping into dear friends at the movies. Nice ! (at Soam Restaurant)

[itsviji2952]

Max

[itsviji2952]

#100dareepact 139/100 A Tussar in my favourite colour combination . The classic off white of raw silk with pink orange maroon and the typical striped border you'd find in Bengal style. I wait for 'winter' in Bombay to wear my silks ...cram them into the two months when you can actually say it is a little less hot than the other ten. Yesterday was nippy though and a Convocation at TISS , the Tata institute of Social Sciences the reason I headed out straight after I returned from Bangalore. A special one this Convocation. The first batch of young ( and not so young ) men and women who have been through a diagnosis of cancer at some time in their lives and who have received special training at TISS to be professional Onco Care Givers . This course the brainchild of the incredibly beautiful and enterprising Ruby Ahluwalia who after her brush with breast cancer set up Sanjeevani along with her husband Anil Ahluwalia through which she devised this innovative project . TISS was happy to get one of its sharp minds to create a module and a three month vigorous term saw these enthusiastic students qualify . Their own experience with cancer give them the cutting edge ! I am proud to have been part of the faculty that helped impart some skills and knowledge to this enthusiastic batch and it was wonderful being welcomed by them yesterday and see them receive their certificates . Friends and peers like Vandana Gupta and Rajiv Sarin and Vani Parmar , Sunita Jadhav and Manjiree Joshi all have contributed to make this a really worthwhile exercise that's mutually beneficial . And the encouragement and support from TISS is so admirable . And great to run into Harshad Purandare who is doing his Masters in Health Administration here these days . A pipe dream of mine had always been to study at this institute . Too late now at 64 years of age but being part time faculty at their department of Extra Mural Studies is an experience I will always value and cherish.

[itsviji2952]

#sisterhood #100sareepact #worldsareeday #worldsareedate #bangalore #coloursofindia #mirrorimage

[itsviji2952]

Mirror Mirror on the wall ??? #worldsareedate #worldsareeday #100sareepact #sisterhood #bangalore

[itsviji2952]

And then all of a sudden I look different #Bindi #NoGlasses #sisterhood #worldsareedate #worldsareeday #100sareepact #bangalore

[itsviji2952]

That's me in the corner #100sareepact #worldsareeday #worldsareedate #bangalore

[itsviji2952]

137/100 #100sareepact #worldsareeday #worldsareedate in Bangalore A Benarsi Georgette in yellow and vermillion with a Temple Border in Zari making a super statement ! Had decided in September , the day I saw it and abandoned my son's birthday dinner (well only for the time it took me to tell the guy at the Taj Saree Centre at The Taj to pack it up for me ) for it , that it was going to be THE Saree for THE day !!! Thank you Anju and all the Pacters for making this such a special evening ! And thank you once again to Anju and Ally Matthan for giving us this precious pact that has changed my life , given me so many friends and made such a difference in my life . I feel liberated . I feel fulfilled and I feel loved and blessed (at Bangalore, India)

[itsviji2952]

#Worldsareeday #100sareepact #sareedate #bangalore #Nirvana (at Bangalore, India)

[itsviji2952]

The glass she said is half empty !!! And I said it means we will always thirst for more ! That's what life is all about . Hullo my friend I am not able to tag you !!! #100sareepact #Worldsareeday #sareedate #bangalore (at Chianti, St. Marks Road)

[itsviji2952]

136/100 #100sareepact The day dawned here in Bangalore all golden and so beautiful . The birds chirping outside as Anju and I stood on her balcony our gaze on the incredibly beautiful eucalyptus trees that hugged the space around our perch ...#Worldsareeday . A fitting tribute and culmination to the #100sareepact Anju and Ally brought into my life early this year. How fitting I am in Bangalore today and with Anju looking back upon all the pact has given me . And since I packed nothing but Sarees for this trip , the morning saw me take out one of the new Sarees I picked up in Colombo . A gorgeous peacock blue , so simple in its understated elegance . Nothing to embellish it but a a little bit red in its border and its pallu. The colour so rich it needs no further embellishment . And blue so appropriate for later in the morning I went to meet Jaya and her family who is also here for the #sareedate :) The morning began with a hug for birthday boy Ketav and the mandatory selfie and the pact picture with his charming daughter who had picked out a charming ensemble , " special because it is Papa's birthday " . Thank you Anju for this precious photograph of your lovely daughter who is a perfectly scaled down version of her beautiful Mom. And then to meet my Jaya and the men in her life and her parents and her charming sister Seema and brother in law Jay. I will only let the photographs speak . Meeting Jaya and the Pandey boys after my stay with them in the U.S. in July. No words to describe the madness . The crazy joy. The mayhem. The love . Yes , just look at the photographs .

[itsviji2952]

135/100 #100sareepact This is a new Saree . A gift from my sister Raji . Who never stops pampering me. Sent me away from Madras with my Saree Gift Money - and I headed straight to Pitambari . A really bold pink Tussar with the dull ochre border and pallu. Such an unusual combination the ochre bringing relief to the brightness of the pink. And the material is so light yet it does not crush and lends itself beautifully to all day wear . And so as I set out for Bangalore to attend the #worldsareeday event and honour and celebrate the #100sareepact that has been such an integral part of my life during 2015 , I chose this Saree . Yes, even for the flight . Damn those escalators and rickety steps ... Every person I asked to take pictures did so happily and I was like an excited schoolgirl telling them what it was for . The lovley ground staff in their elegant Saree uniforms , the sweet stewardess in the plane ( the passengers behind me politely waiting till the 'shoot' was done) !!!! So much fun to share your passion and your madness ...be happy and the world around you reflects your happiness . This is the greatest joy the Saree Pact has given me . A tool, a vehicle to share my life, my passion and my Sarees . The day's joys only multiplied as in Bangalore I was honoured and lucky to be there on the day my young colleague , Ashika and her husband were celebrating their impending parenthood . Humbled to be asked to bestow my blessings along with the other senior members of their family . And then being fed pure, unadulterated love in the form of lunch at VIcky's with my Friends of Max buddies and Anju and Ketav . The ghee those Battis were made in as pure and unadulterated as their love . Feels good Bangalore ...feels wonderful .