THE GLORY OF SARI

Saris of Memory weaves together history and textiles, highlighting key moments from the author's collection

- NAMRATA ZAKARIA

Perhaps it is a good thing that so many advocates of handlooms and saris are finding ways to express their enduring love for the six-yard staple. Noted cultural doyenne, author and publisher of Seminar magazine, Malvika Singh finds India's history and its notable moments in her own collection of saris. Her new book-Saris of Memory-is as much a personal stroll down memory lane as it is a chronicle of India's history. All of this, with the beautiful sari as a front-and-centre mirror of it all.

"The book certainly is a series of short memoirs that come together as a larger collective," Singh, 75, tells me over the phone just a couple of days after her gorgeous book has been sent to me as a gift from Ally Mathan, of Bengaluru's The Registry of Sarees. "I wanted to record the different things I have been doing for nearly 70 years. I wanted to tell the story of my life in a very exciting India, from the mid 1950s to now. So there is a lot of social change, a lot of interesting things. And, yes, I wanted to leave this for my grandchildren. Social media is a lot of recycled emotions, one needs to see things through the eyes of authentic ordinary people. My generation did exciting things, which should not be forgotten."

Singh is the daughter of noted journalist and CPI(M) veteran Romesh Thapar and his wife Raj Malhotra.