Draping a saree everyday of the month might seem normal to Jaipur women, heck, it comes as a piece of cake to them. Not only that, they can pull it off like a boss.

While some of us, who are not used to wearing saree everyday, began the Saree Challenge. What’s the Saree Challenge, you may ask?

The four Musketeers Himangini, Akannksha, Prachi and Neha came up with the concept when they realized that women in Jaipur were slowly leaving the tradition of wearing sarees far behind. Maybe, they think that instead of taking twenty minutes to wrap a saree, and spend the entire day trying to balance their feet in the attire, they’d rather give up and opt for easy indo-western ensembles.

Women from all around Jaipur were invited to wear sarees for months at a stretch. On some days they wore Lehriyas – and of course, special sarees during Diwali. The Jaipur Saree Meet followed the challenge in a logical fashion.

It’s good to hold on to our roots, you know? Well, thank you musketeers, Jaipur needed this!

We were greeted by Akannksha at the entrance. We moved inside and even though, we knew what to expect, we were amazed to see every woman in a saree. They took selfies, discussed each other’s sarees! It was a friendly hi-tea, with chola kulcha, pasta, etc for snacks. Yummyyyy.

Without a doubt, saree brings out the beauty of every woman. There’s no other such attire that looks sexy and graceful at the same time.

The showcase included beautiful jewellery shops among others. Teetri, who is otherwise a wholesaler of women ethnic wear, launched their fashion jewellery collection at JSM. I think I spent a good fifteen minutes at their stall admiring their display, until I was interrupted by our Photographer Nupur to move forward.

Before the hi-tea began with the band playing in the background, it was announced that women in different categories would be awarded. The categories included Jaipur Saree Queen, Jaipur Saree Diva, Miss Swagger, etc.

Our team walked up to a few women in sarees and asked them how they were feeling. While some women said that they were glad since anyway the sarees were rusting in their wardrobes, others were having a hard time draping it every day.

The response of every woman was different.

“This is the coolest challenge ever.”

“It gives us the opportunity to catch up with our old friends.”

“Sarees bring out the true grace of a woman.”

“My mother-in-law is suddenly so happy with me!”

After the splendid performance by V2 the band, hi tea, and gossips, Dr. Amit Sharma talked about Arthritis in women.

Then the winners were announced!

Jaipur Saree Queen – Nidhi Gaur.

Jaipur Saree Diva – Ritu Ghiya.

Miss Perfect 10 – Anshita Bhatia Taneja.

Miss Swagger – Deepika Jain & Kerry  Boyer.

Miss Grace – Radhika Khandelwal & Meghna Rathore.

Special Prize from Pink Lemon for Beauty in Simplicity – Swati Mirdha.

The event was sponsored by Wedding Central and Brainovation. Gift sponsors of the event included Ranas, Pratapsons, Sattva, Teetri, Code Silver, Ambari and Silverline. The radio partner was 94.3 MY FM.

Photo Courtesy – Nupur Agarwal