midday
Would Sandip Babu find the __ Shakti __ of the Motherland manifest in me ? Or would he simply take me to be an ordinary , domestic woman ? That morning I scented my flowing hair and tied it in a loose knot , bound by a cunningly intertwined red silk ribbon . Dinner , you see , was to be served at midday , and there was no time to dry my hair after my bath and do it up plaited in the ordinary way . I put on a gold-bordered white __ sari __ , and my short-sleeve muslin jacket was also gold-bordered . I felt that there was a certain restraint about my costume and that nothing could well have been simpler . But my sister-in-law , who happened to be passing by , stopped dead before me , surveyed me from head to foot and with compressed lips smiled a meaning smile .