happiness and food

“Touchwood” inspired this post and yes, touchwood, you don’t have to go to this one ever.

With so many retail outlets and shopping choices, preferences of female millennials have evolved. We have a lot of options ranging from Indian to Western and of course indo-westerns. Step out or shop online – the range and style is readily available and not limited as before. However, there are times when we want to follow old school and get a dress material stitched in to a well fitted kurta and chuddidar(a legging). When you want such a thing done – there is no dearth of boutiques, local tailors or dress designers. All that you need to do is find the one that suits your style and pocket, meets deadline and delivers what was promised. However, the challenge is when you find none that meets all the above criteria.

Most of the times, I prefer stitched kurtas because they are ready to use the moment you get into the billing section of the store, they are done smartly to be called a decent office wear and do not burn a hole in pocket. But there are times, when I want to try out the dress materials that may be my Mum gets from Azamgarh or Delhi or like this time when GK got me two from Ludhiana. In Bangalore, I have had some decent experiences barring a few not-so-pleasant ones. But as you must have guessed by now, services like these in Bangalore are on the higher side when it comes to pricing and with the frequency that I discard my stuff, they don’t seem to be economically viable. (VT will be happy at this word usage)

So with the new dress materials that I had in my kitty all the way from Ludhiana, I decided to get them stitched in Kurukshetra to save some bucks (I know I can act like that sometimes!) and also the mean thought of getting a nice fitting done up in the north was riding on my mind. That was when the ordeal at “Touchwood” started. Okay – I know it’s a bit of exaggeration but I promise you will enjoy what happened next.

The day I went to give the suits to stitched, my order was “booked” but no measurements were taken cos it was Karvachauth that day. It was okay to open the boutique and sit entire day without food and water fishing for customers and booking orders but for measurements I had to go again the next day. The next day, I gave the measurements, spoke of what sleeves I want, the neck line and other regular stuff. I was given a date when the dress would be ready. My present stay at Kurukshetra wasn’t a vacation. There were personal needs and I chose to work from home instead so the day my order had to be collected, I could not step out of the house. I went to collect it the next day (this was my 3^rd trip) and got to know that one of the two sets wasn’t ready. So, I came back and decided to go again the next day. The next day – around late evening, finally with all the payments done (and trust me nothing is cheap these days) and I came back home with 2 sets of new suits. Happy and excited, I tried them at home and realized they were nicely fitted yet too long for my height. So, I quickly went back again (5^th trip) to tell the lady (a Punjabi Aunty who wears super tight kurtas and bright purple lip color) that my kurtas need to be made shorter.

Here’s what I was told:

• If the fitting was a problem, I would have fixed it – but length?? Are you sure this is long for you?
• So what if you don’t wear long kurtas? It is fashion these days and you should try long ones.
• I am really busy with so many orders that I don’t have time to cut these short by two inches. That would mean I would have to do so much additional work.
• Why don’t you collect them on 27^th? (To which I said – I’m flying back home on 25^th. Come on! Should I leave this with you for a year or get my tickets rescheduled?)
• Wasn’t this the length that I measured for you? Let me check – I don’t do these mistakes. If this is what you said – we will see what to do. – (When the length was being measured, VT was outside the boutique and I had no mirror to assess what length I said yes to but I depended on her designing skills to understand that with my body structure – long kurtas would be night gowns!!)

Aunty’s husband ji acted as peace maker when he heard me getting red. He committed that they would fix my kurtas by next day evening. On my 6^th trip, the boutique was closed and I could finally get them on my 7^th trip around 2 hours later. All in all, with the petrol, the mental tussle and aunty ji’s arrogance, I realized I should have got it done at Bangalore. We all make mistakes. It’s okay cos that’s the way we learn.

Not just that, during all these 7 trips – I had weird experiences. One day Aunty ji was getting threading done in the boutique so I waited for good 10 mins so that her personal grooming expert could make her look good. On one occasion, she made me wait for 15 cos other customers had bigger orders and mine was just two sets! I never got the pink beads that I wanted on my sleeves – it’s blue instead. One is a little too fit but I lost my courage to get it loosened a bit. She made me wait, while she chatted and got groomed. And I thought customer is king!

I wonder if I should call this post “Touchwood Tantrums” or “Tailor Tantrums” so I named it “T” Tantrums. You decide. For me reader is king!

Linking this post to the Write Tribe Pro Bloggers Challenge – October (Post #11). A pledge to write daily or at least write more than September 🙂