The first adventure of Kira
The plane from London had just landed on the airport of Jaipur. Kheyrah was glued to the cabin window. It was the first time she was traveling to India and she had dreamed of it for years. She had been fascinated by India, the beauty of the landscapes, the splendor of the palaces but even more by the glamour of Indian women in their sarees even when they were doing daily chores among garbage heaps. She had drawn in her India dream, her husband since two years. He had offered her several salwar kameez and a series of sarees along with plenty Indian jewelry baubles for belly dance. She had occasionally worn them for Christmas or other family parties. She wore more often the jewelry, when she had a belly dance performance in public.
Kheyrah was French but of North African ascendancy which explained the darker shade of her skin when she compared it with her husband s Dan. At the time, she was 47 but she was taking so much attention to her skin and body that she looked ten of fifteen years less. She had no wrinkles. In addition, she had kept constant attention to her body for the last six years. She suddenly had decided to lose weight and asked for the help of a dietician. Often such treatment helps you to lose a few pounds you win back shortly after but she had an inordinate force of will. She had decided her ideal weight, 108 pounds and she had clung to her goal. She had lost in fifteen months forty pounds and watched her weight daily since.
As Kheyrah had been practicing belly dancing around six hours a week and several more at home, her skin had not sagged at all. She had just lost some breasts to 36B and her measures had fallen to 36-30-36, not so bad for a woman of her age with two grown sons but she still felt herself fat. Clothes size had followed her weight loss and she could easily exchange sweaters with her husband s daughter.
- Honey, it s fantastic, we are in India, at last and did you hear the pilot. The temperature is 30ยก Celsius. In France, when we boarded the plane, it was freezing.
- I wish you have followed my advice just to pack something warm for the return and take only light clothes.
- I took two salwar kameez and one saree.
- It s amply sufficient, we will buy what we need when we arrive at our first stopping place. Our travel guide will tell us where to find what you need.
When they entered the airport arrival hall, Kheyrah took the arm of her husband.
- Look, Darling, most of the women wear sarees. Look at the fabulous colours and how beautiful they look.
- It s so hot that I understand why they wear sarees. I would if I could but I will buy a kurtha : it s something cool for men.
- I know but the sarees are so fantastic I would like to buy several ones. And I took just two petticoats and two cholis. I will need several others with matching colors
- If you want and we will ask the guide or the shop manager how to wear properly a saree. With your somewhat dark skin, your long black hair, you could easily pretend to be a native.
- Maybe but you need practice to wear a saree. I have never worn one more than two hours and mostly sitting at a table. You give me an idea. Let s make a deal.
- What do you propose?
- If you manage to wear sarees properly, I propose that you wear only them during our whole travel. No European skirts or tops, OK?
- Why not, I would love it.
- If the guide finds you of sufficiently Indian appearance, I would even ask him to give you an Indian surname. You could pretend to be coming back to discover your roots.
- It would be marvelous to have roots here.
The guide, named Rajiv was OK with Kheyrah whole project. There was a shop near the hotel who sold good quality sarees for daily uses as well for ceremonies such as weddings or parties or even religious gatherings. They also sold petticoats and cholis of different matter, some embroidered cotton and even some Lycra form fitting cholis. Rajiv accompanied them to the shop as the shop dealer spoke Hindi only. Kheyrah did not take the Lycra cholis. You could see through the fabric her nipples and she found it obscene. Rajiv had tried to convince her but she had been adamant. Rajiv had much less difficulties to have her choose short sleeved and low neck line cholis. He found the french woman rather hot with her ample cleavage but she seemed not to mind. Rajiv insisted that she wore a mandalsutra as befitted her married status.
- Now I will explain you how to wear a saree : you fold it once around your belly, then make seven folds this way. Then you push the cloth under the petticoat just to cover your legs. Yes your feet are visible. I advise you to use thongs rather than European style shoes, especially the high heels one. They are nice on a flat surface like the hotel lobbies but not very practical on uneven surfaces. Not so. Push down your petticoat. It s more sexy to show your navel. I will help you.
- No. Hey. You push it too low. You touched my. Uhh. You figure
- Sorry, I just wanted it to look perfect.
- No big problem. Just take care!
- You know that it will be the first time that a woman in my group wears only sarees during the travel. You will get accustomed to it quite fast. If you need some help, just call for me!
- Thank you, mister Rajiv. How must we address you?
- For your husband and the ingother tourists, Mister Rajiv or Rajiv will be OK. But if you want me to condone you pretend to be Indian, you should use my nickname, Raj.
- Thank you again, Raj. What would please you?
- Umphhh. If you really care for it, I would appreciate some help from you during the bus transfers. I will explain when we are in the bus. Just know that it will be in full accordance with you being an Indian woman. You will need just a few accessories, on the travel agency account. I will buy them for you.. See you later.
- Bye, Raj
The travel schedule included three nights in the same hotel to allow travelers to discover India life, to purchase a few souvenirs, to photograph anything they cared and to taste the many vegetarian food available.
The second day, Kheriana felt already as if she had always worn sarees. She could not understand the other woman travelers who kept steadfastly their European clothing. One of them even made a remark to Kheyrah.
- How can you degrade yourself down to wearing such revealing clothes? It s obscene!