India, Jan. 24 -- A Banarasi weave in a jamuni (deep violet) hue holds the fickle attention of a human eye on the cover, from the moment one holds the book, The Sari Eternal by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri. It thus becomes the talking point upon meeting the author at her residence in Lutyens' Delhi. It's here that the former Assistant Secretary-General at United Nations makes an appearance in a pink and green Mysore silk sari, as if she borrows the aesthetic from Raja Ravi Varma's paintings of Goddess Lakshmi. Mention this, and Puri relents a smile as she begins to read the opening lines of her new book: "The sari. This unstitched river of fabric that winds around my body, is not clothing - it is a second skin for me. I live it. It makes me wh...