Race for the best (fitting) clothes! – Part 1

Soon after the wedding date was confirmed, my scramble to garner the best clothes (at the best prices) began! In India when a girl gets married, she is packed off with dahej. An assorted of Indian suits, sarees, sandals and all things shiny – bundled up in a few suitcases... that are shoved at the back of the flower-decorated car that takes you to your husband’s house after the wedding ceremony. While my idea of wedding shopping was oodles of western clothes for the honeymoon, my parents had different plans altogether.

The shopping started in Jaipur, with me checking out popular saree showrooms like Zari, Nikhaar and Pratapsons (all renowned names here). The prices for simple things like basic non-embellished sarees were pecked at Rs 6,000-10,000. My brain obviously went through the roof and I decided to continue looking. I clearly remember that at Zari, my eyes fell upon this gorgeous wedding lehenga that turned out to be worth Rs 2 lakh! Now we are average middle-class people, and even if we take pride in calling ourselves the upper-strata or the controversial ‘creamy layer’, the lehenga was way beyond my budget. I threw worried glances in my mother’s direction and she assured me that this was just us scratching the surface, and there was a lot more to be explored. I felt vaguely reassured. (Why spend this kind of money on lehengas when it can afford me a trip to the Maldives! Or maybe even Hawaii!) Jaipur was a disappointment in terms of wedding shopping. The collection was abysmal and the charges were prohibitively high. I finally understood why some friends had shopped from all cities around India, instead of investing all energy (and money) in Jaipur. Next stop – Delhi.