STORIES FROM OUR BARI | CHAPTER 9 - Mum And Me | ADITI VARSHNEI
Since my childhood, I have been raised around incredibly strong and monumental women who have loved me unconditionally while encouraging me to carve my own identity. I always believed that they would be standing next to me every step but life had a heartbreaking plan in store for us. Recently, I lost my Nani and Mom whom I was very close to. After their loss, things changed and since that time, my nani ghar has been a constant in my life. It is my safe place -- something to hold on to whilst everything else flips around. The nostalgic fragrances and familiar corners have become little pockets of peace for me and constantly remind me of my pillars of strength.
There isn’t a single day when I don’t miss my mom. She was my best friend, confidant, and teacher. She never stopped me from doing anything, encouraged me to travel and see the world, believed in the weirdest whimsical ideas I came up with, taught me to collect experiences and not things and all whilst keeping me grounded.
One of my favourite memories with mom has been from fifteen years ago when she taught me how to wear a saree for the first time and since then I have only fallen deeper in love with sarees. Over the last year, I have been organising her clothes and now I make a little more effort to wear her kurtas and sarees because it makes me feel closer to her as if I am walking in her shoes (and no her actual shoes would never fit me; I have tiny feet). Initially I would get very anxious trying to make the pleats without her, but my brother has learnt how to give me a hand with them now.
In all these years while experiencing such moments, one of my biggest learnings has been that sometimes it is okay to slow down to focus on seemingly insignificant things, small goals, and little steps forward that we take. I have realised that we don’t need to rush into doing everything at a go instead wait patiently and the pieces will start falling in place when the time is right.
Aditi is wearing Nandini saree styled with blouse from her personal collection