Story published in The Tribune on 3 June, 2014 From cost-cutting to extravagance Kirti Dua I was looking at the wardrobe of my ten-year-old nephew, he has 32 T-shirts. Nowadays, in the wardrobe clothes are generally grouped as party wear, casual wear, gym wear, night suit, etc. However, things were quite different at our time when many of my clothes were modified out of fathers clothes by my mother. I have two younger brothers and it was a sort of family tradition that when the elder one grows out of his clothes, then the next in line was given those clothes. My youngest brother always had this grudge that he never got any new clothes. My mother used to stitch our night suits, using the famous Phagwara JCT Mills fabric. The extra cloth from these night suits invariably was used to make undergarments. Making shirts out of the same piece of cloth for three brothers at the same time was also a part of the cost-cutting family strategy. Our family tailor had standing instructions from my mother that all the clothes to be stitched should have a loose fitting and sufficient margins so that these clothes should fit comfortably in the subsequent years as well. At times the shorts stitched in Class III would fit smartly in Class VI. Otherwise also my clothes were not too trendy. I experienced an awkward moment at a function when one of my uncles told me to go and get ready, whereas I was standing there wearing the best shorts I had. I got my first school blazer when I was in Class VIII. The same coat was also used by my younger brothers. Those days, Rajesh Khanna and other cine stars used to wear bell-bottoms. I got my first bell-bottom in the eighth standard and it was the only formal dress I had at that time. In our school, students had an option to wear a civil dress on Saturdays. On Saturdays, the girls would come in different colourful dresses. Since most of the boys had only one extra trouser, they decided to wear the school uniform on Saturdays as well. Whenever I tried to convince my mother for more clothes, she would tell me that since you are growing, there is no fun having many clothes at this stage. We used to wear home-knitted sweaters in winter. For these sweaters, wool was purchased from the market after an exhaustive survey. All efforts were made to select a new design for the sweater. Generally, winter afternoons used to be the knitting session when the ladies sat together, gossiped, exchanged knitting needles at different stages of sweater and give suitable suggestions. To complete a sweater, it used to take three to four weeks. Once, my mother made a green and yellow sweater for me after copying a design from a magazine. On the completion of this sweater, it was found that our vegetable seller too had a sweater with a similar colour combination and design. I was never comfortable wearing that sweater. I am still having my first red check coat which I got in college and it fits well. My mothers farsightedness always worked!
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 03:08:22 +0000
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