Our Indian relatives have a strong tradition of giving gifts of clothes to visitors. As a result we have all received wonderful gifts we can wear. They didn’t quite get the size right for Padma however. No problem as just down the road lived a seamstress.

We entered a dark alley lined with tiny closet-sized homes and found the home of the seamstress. She and her two children, and I assume a husband, lived in a room no bigger than some of the wardrobes we’ve seen in American homes.

She took Padma’s measurements and just wrote the numbers on the wall while her children and a neighbour girl looked on.

We left the seamstress and returned home and within an hour the woman returned with Padma’s altered garments.