Dress Up

We had a "dress up trunk" in our haveli ( manison) obra (closed room with bukhari i.e. partition of the closed room for storing grains) basement when I was a little girl. It held the keys to imaginative play for most of my childhood, beckoning me with its rusty latch and tattered exterior, for I knew that what it held inside was something more than magical.

Within the trunk lay piles of antique material which, when you unfolded them, opened up into exquisite exceptional. damans- damans and aangies (lingries)my grandmother used to wear in her special days - but were now mine to play with. I would slip them onto my hips, holding them closed with nadas (string on upper hem), and twirl and twirl and twirl.

I could do this for hours with my friends.

Daaman a traditional Haryaanvi dress on picture above

Daman or skirt

There was a time I was expert in Haryanvi folk dance with dammans only

My favorite item in the dress up trunk was an pink coloured satin daaman (later when I was in 9^th standard I made my ghagra choli out of the 40 meter Pink Satin Daman, ( I increased the length and made my upper frilled blouse out of the same daaman). It was in my possesson for many years I used to wear that dress on festivels or marriages or on speacial feasts. which was meant to wear underneath the skirts, like a petticoat. The top dress was a gota edges and gota embriodered latta/ odhni (chunni or duppatta) to worn over head and wrapped around shoulders. Scandalous( improper)! Of course, I had a hard time sharing this coveted (STRONGLY DESIRED) piece of dress up when friends were over, but I tried.

Haryanvi women of my great-grand mother's time wearing khara(previous skirt of coarse handwoven cloth before daaman) and sopli...the shawl for cold season

There were daaman, soplies( handsun-yarn made-maroon coloured cotton shawls)ie. Haryanvi embriodered- cotton-shawl , jaal chunnies, angies, pilias, pomchaaz(all were articles of clothing to cover head and, face(for veil) and also the shoulders and breasts) dresses, khessies (shawls for men and women) and beaded necklaces.

odhnis these are like stoles, headwear clothes for veil

hathfool

There was a brocaded little jacket that when paired with a matching frock, made one 7 year old girl feel like a princes (the precious dress). There was a small trunk in the trunk with packets of supaaries, 2-3 small scent shishies some silver jewellary, I love one of them the hathphool very big for my little fingers that was my favourite one later on my grand mother gifted that jewellary piece to my causin ( to daughter of my father’s sister). There were many things in the trunk, each one a treasure in its own right.

I had just finished some writing the editor WE offered me with a dead line I heard giggles of the girls on the stairs.

One, two, three girls with much age difference - each dressed up in an outfit made by me for all of them, ready to show me how they looked.

Each, a treasure in her own right.

It's nice to see that although the clothes are different, more commercial and less "grandmother's daaman cast-offs," that the basic principal remains the same: kids love to play dress up…no the eldest is much more than the younger ones.She loves to modell for a new outfit as soon as it looks a little bit wearable, without the finished product.

The youngest in the family too come wearing their gala dresses as they owe their dress to be!

I really love children!