A week after the events of my previous post, we headed to Chennai to a beach house owned by a very close friend of mine. It is a gorgeous place.
He maintained it as a guest house to his foreign business guests. It is a beautiful place with feel of a grand holiday resort. Right in the backyard they have the beach and the blue Bay of Bengal sea. It was closed for maintenance and the work had just been completed. We were allowed to stay there for a week as a weeding present from him. We had the chef cook delicious food for us from Italian to Thai. He was fantastic and the maids took care of the house hold stuff. We just had to eat , sleep and have tons of fun!
So here we are, in a place away from home, we are practically strangers here and we could do anything. It started off as a dare. I dare her to wear lungi blouse in the house . She was shy because there were loads of people in the house; the maids, the gardener , the manger. But then she was ready to be a bit bold.
Next day when we came down for breakfast, she was dressed in her favorite lungi , blouse and a thorthu. The maids were surprised but they were scared to ask us anything; I bet they have seen weirder things in this house. The manager was the only guy who did ask about her attire. He had seen this dress in movies and asked us why she was wearing it; he thought it was part of some ritual or something that she was wearing it for. He said that most of the time in tamil movies when a malayali girl/ women stereotype is to be shown they use this dress. He was quick to point out that though the dress was worn disgustingly in the movies, ma'am wore it neatly and quite beautifully.
We were happy to tell him all about the dress and its culture and that we preferred wearing our traditional dress than to any other thing. He said ' Go ahead , sir. It's just fine. Once we had few foreign couples staying here and in a party one gentle man came wearing a skirt. He said it is called a 'kilt'.'
She was getting better with each day. She was no longer shy to be walking around in the beach or resting at the pool side wearing lungi blouse. We took so many photos that I ran out space in my laptop. It was awesome to see her walk in the beach wearing lungi and blouse . Reminded me of the old 'Chemeen' movie. She was so comfortable. She really liked walking like that outdoors.
It was easily the best time we had.
-RM
He maintained it as a guest house to his foreign business guests. It is a beautiful place with feel of a grand holiday resort. Right in the backyard they have the beach and the blue Bay of Bengal sea. It was closed for maintenance and the work had just been completed. We were allowed to stay there for a week as a weeding present from him. We had the chef cook delicious food for us from Italian to Thai. He was fantastic and the maids took care of the house hold stuff. We just had to eat , sleep and have tons of fun!
So here we are, in a place away from home, we are practically strangers here and we could do anything. It started off as a dare. I dare her to wear lungi blouse in the house . She was shy because there were loads of people in the house; the maids, the gardener , the manger. But then she was ready to be a bit bold.
Next day when we came down for breakfast, she was dressed in her favorite lungi , blouse and a thorthu. The maids were surprised but they were scared to ask us anything; I bet they have seen weirder things in this house. The manager was the only guy who did ask about her attire. He had seen this dress in movies and asked us why she was wearing it; he thought it was part of some ritual or something that she was wearing it for. He said that most of the time in tamil movies when a malayali girl/ women stereotype is to be shown they use this dress. He was quick to point out that though the dress was worn disgustingly in the movies, ma'am wore it neatly and quite beautifully.
Mamta Mohandas in Lungi Blouse and thorthu |
We were happy to tell him all about the dress and its culture and that we preferred wearing our traditional dress than to any other thing. He said ' Go ahead , sir. It's just fine. Once we had few foreign couples staying here and in a party one gentle man came wearing a skirt. He said it is called a 'kilt'.'
She was getting better with each day. She was no longer shy to be walking around in the beach or resting at the pool side wearing lungi blouse. We took so many photos that I ran out space in my laptop. It was awesome to see her walk in the beach wearing lungi and blouse . Reminded me of the old 'Chemeen' movie. She was so comfortable. She really liked walking like that outdoors.
It was easily the best time we had.
-RM