For the past two days, #SareeTwitter on Twitter has been trending way past the six yards many expected. By Tuesday afternoon, pictures of people in their favourite saris were all over the microblogging site.
Actor and director Rahul Ravindran also shared pictures of his wife Chinamayee donning sari, captioning “#SareeTwitter anta kada…” with plenty of pride.
Most interestingly, the pictures which garnered the most likes and retweets were of the hand-me-down saris. Twitter user Visha Suchde posted a picture of herself in a bright yellow sari, captioning the image, “The best I can offer #SareeTwitter is a picture from when I wore my mommy’s wedding saree. A stunning Parsi cutwork that I hold closest to my heart. No one makes these anymore.”
A tweet by Rahul Ravindran
Special memories take the trophy in this hashtag whether they’re personal or ones which remind us of handloom heritage. And most of the people who are in this hashtag are young, mostly people who are digitally omnipresent.
For Nikaytaa Malhotra, founder of sari-draping community The Indian Draping Company, the #SareeTwitter trend is something special. She comments, “High time this is trending! Conversations in certain groups like ‘Saree Story’, people talk so much about the sari meaning. Unfortunately we don’t wear the sari enough, even though they’re associated with special memories like wedding occasions or first days of work.” Nikaytaa appreciates the exchange of ideas and stories as well.
Could there have been more diversity in people participating? We haven’t seen much from another South Asian community though, such as Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. “We also have so many Indians living abroad but I haven’t seen people posting the sari pics. I’ll be waiting! I’d also love to see the different types of drape-styles, including the nivi drapes of which I’ve seen just three posts,” adds Nikaytaa.
Nikaytaa encourages people, both men and women, to ignore the trolling on the platform as well. So don’t let the insecurity get to you!
Sadly like any online trend, the shelf-life will peak for 40 hours max. Nikaytaa points out there are plenty of safe and permanent groups and meetups (like sari swaps or draping workshops) to keep the conversation of a sari alive. “Resources and open spaces along with knowledge-exchange avenues are so important for this,” concludes Nikaytaa.
