Navami: The Last Full Day

Maha Navami, 19 October. The last full day, and everybody knows it.

Navami has a mood the other days do not. The crowds are enormous, the food is at its best, people stay out until three, and running underneath it is the knowledge that tomorrow the idols go to the river.

What to wear

Something good, but not something precious. Navami is a long night in a large crowd, and the sensible move is your second-best rather than your best.

• A Tussar, a georgette, or a designer embroidery saree — dressed, but not the Ashtami piece again.
• Or repeat Shashthi's saree with a different drape and different jewellery. Four days in, nobody is keeping a list.
• An Anarkali or a choli palazzo set if you are eating your way across the city, which you should be.
• For men, a good kurta. The jacket was yesterday.

Tomorrow is a cotton day

This matters tonight, because tomorrow morning is too late to think about it. Vijaya Dashami means sindoor khela, and sindoor does not come out of silk.

Set out a cotton saree in red and white for tomorrow — something you love the look of and do not mind marking. Cotton and linen sarees, or Bandhani for the same palette. The alternatives to the standard lal paar sada are here.

And put the good one away properly

Yesterday's silk should be airing in shade today, not folded away damp. Refold along different lines from last year, wrap in cotton rather than plastic, and keep the naphthalene away from the zari. The full care guide.

One day left.