Heartiest greetings of Bijoya Dashami and Dussera to everyone who's celebrating the auspicious festival. In bengali mythology Bijoya Dashami marks the last  day of magnanimous Durga Puja celebration, Ma Durga's win over Mahisasur and the triumph of good over evil. Its the send off day when we our daughter Uma returns from her maiden home to be with husband Shiva. As we bid farewell, we wish her happiness by smearing sindoor or vermillon, feeding her sweet and water and wiping her face with our anchal. Its such a beautiful tradition where the Goddess is our daughter and we happily dance and celebrate her farewell to wait for another year for her homecoming.

Sindoor khela is thus a beautiful tradition where ladies of all cast, creed, color bond with each other in a festive mood and smear vermilion on each other. Here's a sneak peak into ours at Washington Kali Temple this evening. Although it is a Prabashi Pujo we try our best to stay close to our roots thus all the rituals are carried with utmost sincerity and excitement. 

 Outfit details

I tried to keep it as simple and traditional as I could. Paired my mother's red and white dhakai jamdani with this kantha frilled blouse and gold jewelries. There's nothing much to this look except very simple makeup with a big red bindi or tip which is quintessentially BONG.

Lots of Best Wishes from our home to yours and may Ma Durga bless with all her blessings and liht up your lives with happiness, smiles, dreams and hopes

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"Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the soil with laughter". Its the season to be merry, spread colors and freshness in air. So before the scorching heat sets in lets enjoy this brief spell of "আরামদায়ক " (pleasent) weather and immerse ourselves in colors. And in this years' Spring Look we have combined flowers with colors the two most inseparable entity of the season

Wearing a আবির  toned (hot pink hue of the specific powdered color used during holi) baluchari for the season. I own a couple of these masterpiece handwoven sarees(click here to read our last baluchari post) and Ma wanted me to buy one more for last Puja. I was more than happy to oblige 😜. This saree is in hottest pink available in the market which caught my attention the moment the seller asked me which color I wanted to see. So it was the rarest moment when I chose the saree in less than a minute. It has beautiful intricate meenakari work done.

But main interest of the look is the dull gold floral blouse I paired with. Onset of Spring means you’re about to see florals literally everywhere: blooming in the parks, blooming on people’s office desks, and especially blooming on clothing racks. While many of us loved wearing enough floral prints to fill a flower shop when we were kids, some of us can’t help but feel like we’re back in preschool when we try on the timeless trend as adults. For those of us who want to refresh our spring saree looks without feeling like we should be reaching for a nursery coloring book, there are lots of sophisticated ways to wear a flourish of petals. The first one and the most popular being a floral blouse. So here I paired the traditional silk saree with a floral printed blouse. It gives some freshness to the look. Whenever we have to pair a classic saree like baluchari, its not necessary to pair with the matching blouse go for something trendy and edgy as a floral print or stripes or even geometric patterns. The self designed blouse has a very stylish boat neck, contrast piping and large buttons at the back.

I hope you found some inspiration on how to drape your timeless traditional weaves and be the starlet this season. Your purchase may provide bread and butter for the extraordinary weavers who create such art with fabric. So this spring empower our own classic sarees.

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A gorgeous sunny November day was upon us and this unexpectedly bright, crisp and warm morning brought a treat of first winter warmth to the good people of Calcutta. It was almost as if this golden morning was to herald every precious moments that followed that day! It was a once in a lifetime event for our family, Annaprason or the First Rice Ceremony of my one and only tiny tot. Thus I had to drape something more than special for this day. Thus it had to be this pure handloom Baluchari woven with sincere love and devotion... Evoking emotions that are sincere and divine... 

It was a very intimate cozy affair with close family members participating in an age old ritual called Annaprason or Mukhe Bhaat or feeding him his first rice/solid food. Keeping the traditional nature of the occasion in my mind, I decked up in a quintessential vintage Bengal avatar draping the saree in an aatpoure style. Paired the saree with gold heirloom jewelries comprising of a choker that was handed down from my grandmom to me, a jaal necklace with matching earrings, nath with pearl strings, chur, bala and a paata ring

Balucharis are timeless ...comes in jewel tones with hand woven motifs taken out of the fragile pages of the past... Enchanting and timeless... Fabrics that are luxurious and grand but gossamer light and airy. Baluchari saris are much prized and sought after by the connoisseurs of the saree. Please see my other post on Baluchari saree here that I wore for my Durga Puja look. This one that i wore is a bi-color one with anchal and pallu in blue and the body in purple. Like it should be this baluchari also has figure motifs woven on it, depicting stories of Krishna and Arjun. Chose a purple full sleeved blouse over the contrst blue one to make the blue look brighter in the whole attire.

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