Saree Club And Her Biggest

By: Rupa Parthasatathy

She migrated to Australia many decades ago with her family. Her saree collection symbolises the stories of her familial memories of culture, tradition, and history. One such story she shared with him the first time I met her was the story of courage, perseverance, grief, and passion for creating change through awareness. Her purpose; is to raise awareness about skin cancer’s impacts on our lives.

Our chance conversation happened when we met at our Saree Club’s biggest morning tea last year. Though fleeting, the conversation left an impact on me. And this year, she co-hosted Saree Club’s Biggest Morning Tea. Her name is Dipika Gandhi.

She is a leader, motivator, humanist, educator, and connoisseur of Sarees and their origin stories. She founded Saree Club to connect women passionate about sharing their love of sarees through stories. Her purpose: is to advocate for meaningful conversations and raise awareness about all the important issues that impact women’s lives.

And last year, she laid the foundation to host the first Saree Club’s Biggest Morning Tea. This year she was the co-host of the event. She is someone who believes that from little things, big things grow. And I got to witness that magic first-hand. She is Poornima Menon.

What started as a small backyard gettogether of around thirty ladies last year burgeoned into a mini event this year, attended by fifty ladies, with a renowned dermatologist Dr Kavita Injeti, invited as a guest speaker. A medical dermatologist with an extensive experience in Paediatric dermatology, Dr Injeti, addressed the ladies and shared information about different types of skin cancers. The moral of her presentation and story was to look out for signs and never to underestimate the power of simple actions. The protection of simple habits of “slip, slop, slap, Seek and Slide” can provide.

Following this presentation, many “She’s’” shared their lived experience stories with cancer. Some were carers and survivors.

Last year, I attended the event, as I got re-inducted to support a family member with cancer to channel my shock into action. And this year, to honour the lives our family has lost and to remember the life lessons they left us. This year’s additional theme was wearing a saree representing the colour of cancer you are raising awareness about. I wore a linen silk saree with a kaleidoscope of colours, and the story behind my saree is this.

She loved dressing up. Her favourite thing to do was collect necklaces; made of beads, precious and semiprecious stones of vari-