Sania Nehwal in bridal

Sania Nehwal is an Indian badminton player. Currently ranked number 2 in the world by Badminton World Federation, Saina is the first Indian girl to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships.

Sania Nehwal made history on June 21, 2009, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Wang Lin in Jakarta. (The Super Series tournament is roughly equivalent to a Grand Slam in tennis.)

She made a good showing at the Uber Cup and thats good enough for me.

Here she is in Pallavi’s bridal outfit.

Sania Mirza at the reception in Pakistan

I admire Sania; she is a great athlete and thats why I worry about her. I just don’t have a good feeling about her marriage to this weasel Shoaib Malik.

Here is a woman who stopped playing tennis in India because she hated the criticism from the muslim community that a woman shouldn’t wear shorts (I wonder if the clergy knows that it is kind of hard to play tennis with the burqa); and now she marries in to an even more conservative community. It is hard enough for a muslim woman, and then on top of that she marries a weasel who wouldn’t even acknowledge that he was already married and didn’t get a divorce till a week before his wedding to Sania. The really worst part – the bribe that he gave to the other woman for a divorce is less than what he agreed to pay Sania if they were to get divorced.

I bet in their marriage contract (nikah nama) he took away her right to get a divorce and retained his right to get a divorce and like most women, Sania didn’t even bother to read her nikah-nama!

Sigh… the feminist in me cringes…

I want to say “love conquers all”, unfortunately the correct proverb is that “Love conquers all, except in Tennis”.

See our previous coverage of Sania in sarees

Sania Mirza weds in her Mother’s red saree

At the nikah ceremony Sania wore red saree and it’s the same saree which her mother wore on her nikah. Shoaib Malik wore a Black Sherwani which was designed by Shantanu and Nikhil.

I am really happy for them, its just that I didn’t particularly like that the groom, the Pakistani Cricketeer Shoaib Malik, divorced his previous wife just a few days before this wedding. Hope he treats Sania a tad better.

Oh well, I do appreciate Sania’s sentimental “mother’s red wedding saree” at her wedding – very touching.

Safety Pin – an essential accessory for the saree – sigh….

Safety Pin – an essential accessory for the saree!

Safety Pins and duck tapes make the world go round – literally!

Haven’t I written about this before? Sania Mirza – on using a saftey pin for a saree

Sania Mirza – on using a saftey pin for a saree

I greatly admire Sania. It really burns me up when issues irrupt about her clothing after each and every game she plays in India. I was really disappointed to hear that she will no longer be playing in India to avoid all that drama. I sympathize with her and I think it is a collective loss for all of us when a talented person like her has to choose between dressing right for the game and dressing right for “community approval”.

So I am really happy to see her do photo shoots in Sarees; I have profiled her grace and natural beauty in some other posts as well.

I just wanted to point out the slightly offending use of safety pin in this picture. Saree is a free flowing six yards of garment and I have resigned to the fact that it will need some sort of anchor to hold it right; pinning the saree is a ritual that many go through everyday.

But it doesn’t need to be as overt and as manifest as it is here. The pins can be used at multiple strategic places but they don’t need to show.

In this picture, it is clear that the person dressing her and preparing her for the photo shoot put the safety pin (you can tell that from the angle). But the fact that it ultimately ended up in the picture is a failure at so many different level – the make up person should have noticed it, the photographer should have noticed it, the light person should have noticed it, the person reviewing the pictures should have noticed it..

For a saree to be draped with such safety pin showing is akin to a man having a photo shoot done with the fly open – ok, may be not that bad.. but you get the point.

Ckick the top picture for a better view and right click to save it as a wallpaper.

In a nutshell, pinning is OK, but make sure that the pins don’t overpower the design of the saree. Pin them so that the safety catch is on the side of the fabric that is not visible.

Again, this is not a reflection on Sania; she looks gorgeous as always – this is a failure of the photographer and the staff that is helping take the picture.

More tennis stars in Saree – vow!

I know, I had promised that i will not post any pictures of tennis stars in saree and then I broke that promise by posting Sania Mirza’s picture and I am breaking it again with this awesome picture.

I like this picture even better:

during a function on the eve of the WTA Bangalore Open Championship 2008 in Bangalore March 2, 2008. The World Tennis Association (WTA) Bangalore Open Championship begins on March 3, 2008.

Sania Mirza in a Saree – Red and Golden!

I know, I promised not to have any tennis stars in Saree, but we can always make exception for Sania Mirza.

Via Fully M@za