Thursday, February 02, 2006

The story behind the the pillow cover and scarf


My green long skirt is a living testimony to the great quality and workmanship of our cotton fabric industry. It was probably bought/handed-down when I was 3 years old. It was a long skirt that reached my ankles, but it was not destined to remain a long skirt.

With my brother in the alleged skirt..I don't talk about my brother's dressing preferances

A single article of clothing that can make it from black & white photos to colored ones must have lived a life that would make a turtle flip inside its shell.

As I was rummaging through my childhood photo albums, I noticed one thing that remained constant. My green skirt with three stripes on the top and bottom- yellow, red, yellow. It became a knee length when I was 6 years old and a mini skirt when I turned 11. This fateful (or rather faithful) skirt kept featuring in many pictures until the photos themselves transitioned to snapshots of adulthood. Maybe my waistline finally expanded. For once, you’ve got to be thankful for that. I was quite aghast at my mom’s despicable kanjoosi! Such exploitation will be dealt with appropriately. Actually I was hiding this fact- I even saw the same tattered skirt worn in a high school play where I was a psychopath (My dad volunteered me for that role; I was a natural I believe).

Later during my college days, I would cut off five inches from the bottom of my jeans every year till it became a bio hazard (No photos of that, sorry to dissapoint you). My mom cringed; I reminded her of the green skirt trauma. This was the same thing, in reverse. Rationale being, I wasn’t growing any taller.

One day when I come home from college, I saw an ugly patch of cloth stitched to the bottom of my jeans (which had by then morphed into short shorts). The patch was faded green with three stripes- yellow, red and yellow.

52 comments:

Vee Cee said...

u have black & white photos of you as a kid!!!! exactly how old are you now???

anantha said...

whats with the dress posts? your buddy shoefie had one.. and now you :))

Anonymous said...

He he he ... We do the same thing with our daughter. Her pants have now become capri .... Some things just dont change.

Alpha said...

vc- keep guessing. tsk tsk..your age is not going to change anyway with these allegations. black and white was just tapering off..like roll film cameras now.

anti: actually shufy was the one who inspired me to write about thunimani.

bloghopper: your daughter will get her revenge!

anantha said...

Alpha: What is thunimani? Is it like Thangamani?

Chitra said...

"which had by then morphed into short shorts"..... ha ha ha. It was that bad :)?

Alpha said...

anti: no, it's like thunimani.

chitra: You know those fads..frayed ends, cut jeans..that go from capris, to cycling shorts to shorts (and real short shorts if you overestimate the cutting part) Hence my mom was forced to use vile methods to cover my dignity.

Kowshic said...

"....I don't talk about my brother's dressing preferances"

I coughed up my morning coffee all over myself. The picture shows that trans-dressing has been a part of "tamil" culture for a long time.

Alpha said...

yeesh, see if i had coughed up coffee all over my green skirt when i was 3, i might have been spared in future years to come. On second thoughts, maybe not. Would end up wearing coffee stained skirt.

Yeah, I don't know what is worse..me in old green skirt or my brother in my hand-me-downs? Didn't realise it was a 'Tamil' thing. Maybe my bro found the answer he had been looking for.

Kowshic said...

It is not a "Tamil" exclusive. Like many things, it was there too.

Unknown said...

You look so lovely in the black and white picture. I am saying nothing about your poor brother in that skirt, parents can be cruel :)

anti thunimani theriyaadhaa? serious-aa vaa?

Anonymous said...

ur denim shorts are still the same shorts? or are they strategically cut now to become a denim mini skirt? .. i wont be surprised! .. it wud b a substitute for ur old green skirt. hey how abt posting ur color pic in that denim-shorts-cut-to-denim-mini-skirt? ... waiting eagerly to see u in that.

Alpha said...

wa: finally! finally someone commented on my cuteness. Was wondering if everyone had gone blind..forget anti, he is just going around picking on everything Tamil I say...Me is convinced his tamil is not even at par with mine.

dubai ka prasad: To satisfy that craving of yours, there are certain websites you know. Of course you'll have to make do with someone other than me...which is a good thing actually. stop turning my childhood memories into a porn flick.

anantha said...

Alpha: My Tamil is just fine, thank you. But Dont boast about your Tam skills. I am just not going to reply to anything that is mentioned in Tam here. People seemed to be pissed off about that and you seem to be losing readers, so we will detist fro using Tam words. Hmmmph..:p

WA: I know Thunimani and Thangamai too. But from now I will talk English, walk English and laugh English too.

Dubai Prasad: Is your address No 6, Vivekanandar Street, Dubai Cross Street,Dubai ?

Alpha said...

anti thangam, looks like you took me seriously (at last)..dont fret..tamil/telugu/everything is welcome.

GratisGab said...

Omigod, the skirt made it to the blog...now it shall live eternally..

Boys, boys, she talks about so many things are we still go back to Tamil and it's applications...??!!

anantha said...

Gabby: Whats wrong with the skirt, which does look nice, btw. But Hmmm..Alpha was asking for a scandal. Mebbe that might be the scandalous thing to do - Morph this pic to make it look as if Alpha was the only dressed human on a nude beach...

Alpha: You should probably try Photoshop-ing this pic with tulips or chrysantheums in the background, or let me do my thing with PSP that I mentioned to Gabby!

anantha said...

Alpha: :p (for calling me thangam!)
Btw, my grandmom was affectionately called thangammal!

Alpha said...

Anti: It worked..you don't talk in Tamil (excessively) for one day and Gabby comes over. Dhanya ho gayi mai!

gabriel: Yes, the green skit lives. It's actually still at home..maid servant uses to wipe the floors.

anti: you grandmom was chellama called thangammal? Isn't that a long nick? What was her name? Sripattabiramavenkateshwarithangamaligai? Jeez..your must be something like Ananthanarayan or something..haw haw!

Alpha said...

anti: lol at photo shop idea..that would be quite scandalous and highly insulting.

anantha said...

Alpha: Highly insulting? You mean to the people around you at the nude beach? Ya man.. unka reputation ithna karab go jaayega ki they will abandon their nudist lifestyle....
God.. the past two days have been totally vela at work. Should learn to pace myself!

B o o said...

Tho thweet! :)

My long skirt is part of the patchwork in a "Rajaai" now. Guess, recycling is nt a new thing to our moms! Lovely post. Brought back loads of memories.

aNTi - "Dubai street, Dubai." LOL!

Anonymous said...

anti : hey, spot on .. how u found my address? .. the guy in alpha's last post must have revealed the secret .. chk my comments (at the end) on alpha's last post .. u will know our common secret.

alpha : me not craving for what u imagined .. my craving is for lafter .. wud surely hav bellyful seeing u in some skirt .. hey, btw, u may find a fitting variety of that green skirt in patel bros shop on west devon avenue .. wanna go find one to wear it for recent pic? may be worth a comparison - then n now - for u! .. for me, i just told u what i crave for.

Ravages/CC said...

poor bro. i once had a cousin dress me up the way your bro is in this photo. i was, oh, 4-5. Yenakku onnum puriyada vayasu, but realised something was, well, unnatural.
the cuz still haunts me with that photograph of me in a choli. and she is now married and has a kid of the age I was in that photo. sheesh!

B o o said...

Ravages, is that you Bro? I am shocked. I did exactly THAT to my cousin and hes in college now and runs at the sight of me bringing out the photo!!! :)) I guess girls cant resist dressing up lil boys. (and scarring them for life!)

Anonymous said...

What pillow cover and scarf?

Alpha said...

anti: work hard and stop thinking of nude people at work.

boo: thanks... I bet you are ravage's cuz..actually i was the one who insisted my brother wear that. poor scarred one.

ravages: You would like cute in a choli. Please be passing it on.

ambimams: yes, maching clothes for siblings..that's the next topic for me to cover. Shudder!

fillu: The living testimony...there is a pillow and a scarf lying around in my parent's house that looks suspiciously familiar.

Me said...

now i know the reason y ur brothers wife needed so much gold....

Kowshic said...

"....I don't talk about my brother's dressing preferances"

"...actually i was the one who insisted my brother wear that. poor scarred one."

Alpha aka "Ettappan"!

anantha said...

Dubai: U and i share a secret? Or you and Alpha? Forest Park/Harlem don't sound like ma hood in any case... Ogden and Western, yess.. u can say, thats where my homies ball..

Anonymous said...

My sisters and I don't have brothers, we have boy cousins. So in ALL family photos, looking all hoity toity, my sisters in pants (bell bottoms) and the boys in langa blouse (yes yes, thats what we call them), ensemble complete with eye makeup (kaajal stretched to look like burnt fish), necklace(yes yes, thats what we call them), bindi and a pained 'What am I doing here' expression.

Since I came long after me sisters, I didnt have to go thru hand-me-downs. I was always in a chaddi and petticoat in photos :D (yes yes, thats what we call them).

KJ said...

lol.. for a minute i thot it was ur brother in the Green skirt with long hair n all ( then i RE READ the entire sentence & understood wat u were saying)

di's pants have become capri's already... will she take revenge on me?

u have INSPIRED me put up a childhood pic of mine... *grin*

KJ

Alpha said...

me, think as much as I may, i can't see conection between gold and lavender dress.

d.n.a: yes, I agree. Are you the dna of a fish or seagull? Coz your coordinates entered on google earth take you inside the Chicago river.

maddie: some messed up family that. lol at fish kajal..haha! We called it shimmy.

KJ: lol, i can agree that the sentence is kinda convoluted. Where is the photo? I went running to look.

Kowshic said...

Chicago river? Damn! I thought it was ORD! No wonder they said I won't make a good pilot. BTW, d.n.a is Do Not Ask.

anantha said...

D.N.A: No.. its just off the Chicago river...North Branch Street!

Alpha said...

dna: not asking, but u are a pilot?

Anonymous said...

Damn, the post changed before I could get something sufficiently flattering about the writing in. ( I kept getting stuck@ what a cute kid you were, what made you grow up into this).

But now shall intervene to point out that shimmy it was not. You are trying a false singular.

Shimmies==> Our version of chemise aka petticoat.

And no chance of sizes in this for aNTi, so the rest may start reeling them off.

Alpha said...

haha ?!, Let me help you finish... what made you grow up into this hot babe?

you shud know better than to talk about little girl's underclothes...that too openly. Hai raam! No body listens to agents anymore. shimmies, yes...i remember prancing in those/that that too embarrasing in a home video. evil parents.

anti in shimmies might be more bearable than anti in frech jettis.

Kowshic said...

Alpha, no I'm not. That was just tounge in cheek.

Anonymous said...

Later during my college days, I would cut off five inches from the bottom of my jeans every year

How many years were you in college?

Anonymous said...

dna: no?! bummer! only way you can redeem yourself is if you are a Hollywood actor.

zo: 4- years. I have long legs!

KJ said...

will let u know when i post that fotoo of mine...

:-))

Anonymous said...

Alpha, if it is any consolation, I fly free!

Alpha said...

dna; I knew you were a seagull...or more likely a geek in United Airlines flying standby..not impressin me much.

Anonymous said...

*GASP*. Shimmy? How dare you, Alpha? How dare you bring shame on us southie chicks by using a convent-educated-from-North-India word like shimmy?

Some of them even had the gall to call them slips. This was LONG before we needed to, err, wear slips, you know. Petticoat days were the bholi-bhali ladki, not yet khol-ed our pyar wali khidki days.

But SHIMMY? Shame on you!

Ravages/CC said...

boo: I am not sure you are the cuz. For one, I am out of college, unlike your cousin.

Alpha said...

maddie: lol at bholibali.. I never knew someone cud be so passionate about term usage for underclothes.sorry, i was ignorant.anyway to redeem myself? Do i have to fly standby with d.n.a. here?

patrix: Arey..at least now na..

Anonymous said...

aaan?

Alpha said...

dinu: what aaan? you won't take me free flying?

Anonymous said...

That purely depends on how impressed you are of me - ;)

Alpha said...

Well, You need to give me more time and authentic info other than wrong coordinates.

Anonymous said...

zo: 4- years. I have long legs!

You are a really tall girl alpha. My calculations indicate that it took you eight years to graduate.
Can you double check ur memory?