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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
(India) A sari made of imported polyester, as opposed to a traditional cotton sari..
She went on to explain, "Now only old women wear those coarse cotton saris, control cheeralu [cheeralu is the Telugu word for saris]. They are like gunnysacks. Poonams are modern. They are brightly colored and do not fade. But they cling to the body, and you need a separate underskirt and blouse to wear them." Still later she added, "What else will we wear? We work in the field all day -- in the sun, in the rain. Poonams don't tear. They don't fade. They don't crumple. Dirt and mud just wash away. they dry easily."
Egged on by their sisters-in-law, two widows gaily dressed themselves in the polyester saris they were not supposed to wear because poonams are considered too bright, too colorful, too clingy, and, all in all, just too sexy for widows, who are desexualized in the normative gender order.
Shantamma, a Dalit smallholder, once said to me, “People like us, people like you, everyone wears poonams (polyester saris) these days”
Use poonam when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Poonam means (India) A sari made of imported polyester, as opposed to a traditional cotton sari..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
She went on to explain, "Now only old women wear those coarse cotton saris, control cheeralu [cheeralu is the Telugu word for saris]. They are like gunnysacks. Poonams are modern. They are brightly colored and do not fade. But they cling to the body, and you need a separate underskirt and blouse to wear them." Still later she added, "What else will we wear? We work in the field all day -- in the sun, in the rain. Poonams don't tear. They don't fade. They don't crumple. Dirt and mud just wash away. they dry easily."
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