I recall someone once asking her why she chose to forgo of this garment of modesty. Blinking into the sun that shone into her eyes she had replied, “We tribal women have forsaken the blouse for Sita’s sake. When Sita was condemned to live in the forest with her husband Ram, she chanced upon a golden deer and desired its skin to stitch herself a blouse. Ram set out to trap the deer, but in the meanwhile Sita was abducted by Ravan, the famed king of Lanka. And of course, Sita had to forgo her desire to stitch herself a deerskin blouse. It is in Sita’s honor that we have abandoned the practice of wearing a blouse.”
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