Happy Tamizh New Year
Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 10:22PM Wishing you all a very happy Tamizh new year!
இனிய புத்தாண்டு நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள் !!
Thanks to the Natesan's for giving them "matching" dresses for their Birthday!
Today's dressing session brought back memories of me and my brother, when we were the same age!
Wait, if you are thinking.. "oh so cute. Sundar and his brother must have worn matching outfits as kids!", you are way off base. There is only some truth to it!
When we were kids, our family went through tough times because my dad who worked in the insurance business was going through a labor strike. He did not have many choices. It was either sit at the picket line and forego pay or be ostracized. He chose picket lines, and that meant no pay! So we moved out of our big rental house to a small asbestos roofed shed the entire year of my 3rd grade(3rd standard!).
Naturally, there were no new clothes and we would end up getting new school uniforms stiched for diwali and no new clothes on our birthday. Somehow our parents made us understand what we were going through. For the next two three years, they were making a slow comeback, and that meant identical clothes for the two boys!
They would take us to Bombay Dyeing shop in Luz Corner and buy the same cloth by the meter and invariably ask the question "how much for him and how much for the little guy?". My brother and me would protest, take my parents to opposite ends of the shop to pick different patterns but invariably economics would take over. For a long time I used to see those books on my dad's shelf which said "Macro Economics - by Taylor" and would think that the guy at Art Land Tailors in Luz corner wrote those books!
Same pattern, same clothes and worse for my brother, he would get my hand me downs, which meant he would end up wearing the same pattern for another year or two. The horror! For some reason the parents, the relatives and even family friends would think this was "cute". Hopefully we were really cute, and they weren't laughing behind our backs. The phase finally came to an end, when I went to high school and my brother was as tall as me and eventually became taller than me. He was probably praying every day for some miracle by which the matching outfit, hand me down horror would end and was glad that it did.
Today it was so different watching the two girls, so happy to be wearing the same dress. Guess that is one of those things where, girls are different from boys!
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Tamizh, dressing up, happy new year, matching, outfits, tamil
Reader Comments (9)
Oh my! they look so grown up in the picture! And you are right, may be girls dont mind. I certainly did nt mind wearing hand me downs or matching outfits with my sis.
ps.
When I was a kid, I was thinking Elizabeth Taylor was "elizabeth oda tailor"!! ;)
it looks like at least your sister was spared. When I was a kid, I got the same print frock as my brothers shirt. We still look at that photo and laugh at how our parent's 'economics' always won when stitching dresses for the three of us.
That bombay dyeing shop still exists and I went there this time when I went to chennai :)
My parents economics also made us wear one- two size bigger than our real size. Reminds me of a sweater that me and my sister got when we went to Delhi . The one that was for my sister still fits her well:-) Either she didn't really grow that much or my parents got a size thinking for 15 years from now :-)
I have a different opinion. My mom and her sisters used to have identical clothes and the DID mind. Guess when there is a a choice, it is novel. But when it is a way of life, boredom sets in.
After your brother grew taller than you it must have been his turn to give you his used clothes. Why didn't that happen? :) Just joking
And BTW, you guys look cute wearing matching outfits :)
boo, looks like most sisters like to have the same thing (apparently san and her sister did that too)
girl: I want that too
Boy : I dont want the same thing he has.
looks like a fundamental boy girl thing!
anon, come on! that photo was taken when my sis was 10 days old and it was her naming ceremony.. she is wearing "nothing but an arana-kayiru" in that photo.. in a sense I guess she was "spared"!
SVB, pasangalukku bulk-la bittu thuni vaangaadha varaikkum sari!
second anon, dont even go there.. we would always wear one or two sizes bigger. It was the version of "planned" parenthood in those days! even shoes.. we would flop around in shoes one size bigger..
utbt, will have to explain the answer to your question, in person!
or write a post about it...
That reminds me the part of the world that I come from, any wedding that comes up everyone gets given idential pattu sarees. I used to like it a while ago, hate it now though
Lovely pictures, both of them.
I liked wearing some of my sister's hand-me-downs, but seriously didn't like her getting more new clothes than I did!
Now I wear some of my girls' hand-me-up sarees! The good thing being that sarees are sizeless garments.
Our 3-yr old daughter gets the hand-me-downs from our 6-yr-old son (yes, we're shameless enough to dress our girl in boys' clothes ...).
A few months ago, I told him that a shirt was too small for him. She heard that and piped up, "if it's too small for him, it's mine now!" She grabbed it from me and went to hang it up with her clothes.