When opportunities to travel to new destinations present themselves, I tend to shamelessly grab them, just as I did with Reva’s tour to Maheshwar & Mandu with her friends.

Maheshwar, to me, evokes a vision of yards and yards of hand-woven sarees. Ever since a cousin in the family started her own business designing Maheshwari sarees and employing local weavers, they’ve been top of mind for most of us, making an appearance in family weddings and being the perfect gift. They’re lightweight yet dressy, in multitudes of colours, and even make super salwar-kameez for non-saree people like myself.

My cousin has her own label, Gayatri, and retails in Indore.

Getting back to the weaving, since we were traveling to the source, I expected it to be a fantastic photo op. Sadly, since it was a national holiday that day, most of the weavers were out of action. I did get a few though: