Two Days Out: Getting the Week Ready

Shashthi is 16 October. Two days. The shopping is over; this is about making sure what you have works.

Do these today

1. Lay out all six days. Physically — saree, blouse, petticoat, jewellery, shoes, in six piles. Every gap shows up immediately, and every year at least one does.
2. Press everything now. Not on the morning. A silk saree needs a cool iron through a cotton cloth, never directly. See the care guide.
3. Try on the children's outfits. Six weeks since you bought them is a size.
4. Check the shoes. If any pair is new, wear them around the house today and tomorrow. This is the single commonest thing that ruins an evening.
5. Charge everything and carry a power bank. A phone on 4% in a pandal crowd with no agreed meeting point is how families lose each other.
6. Buy safety pins, and a spare petticoat drawstring. Both cost nothing and both save a morning.

The one thing still worth buying

Something ready, for the day you have not planned. There is always a seventh occasion nobody accounted for — an invitation, a lunch, a change of plan. A co-ord set, a kurti or a salwar suit needs no tailoring and covers it.

Our stores are open through the week — Park Street and Gariahat, Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills, Jayanagar, Vijayawada, Kanchrapara.

And the plan itself

Which saree on which day is set out in the six-day guide. The short version: the light ones on the walking days, the serious one on Ashtami, and cotton on Dashami because of the sindoor.

Everything at festive collection.