I watched my cousin screw on her diamonds earrings and nose ring and put on her rings at 5.a.m. It was barely 10 hours since she'd returned to the room post-op. A catheter bag was still attached to her and she could just about walk.
I had consciously left my ring behind so it wouldn't hurt the baby.
Rani, the maid in my father's house, was sizzling in yet another new saree. She said, since her son was going to Sabari Malai, she has to be bathed and fresh everyday so she had had to buy half a dozen sarees.
So, its obviously not a matter of whether you can afford anything; only what you think you can afford.
I said "Why have I never done this in my life or even thought it possible?"
Sindhu said, "Ma, you would die of guilt if you bought half a dozen sarees.So don't think about it."
A friend was saying that she might change out of 5 dresses before she picked one she was happy with when she was dressing to go out. Another friend and I , with the narrow souls of housewives said we would only think of the cost of the ironing involved.
These are women who believe they owe it to themselves to look good. And because they think so, they look good .
I hear you can have self esteem without self confidence and vice versa. Im not quite sure of this, but some people certainly have self esteem and that is nice.
2 comments:
was it about this cousin that u made a remark the other day?
back to the topic - well, both my wife & me continue to be amazed at the transformation to the Indian psyche..especially when it comes to material life..how it has changed. my mother would stow away every plastic bag, bottle cap, news paper to be sold for recycling.. ah well. i better stop or it will become a rant.
Maddy don't encourage me to talk about my cousins.:-)I expect soon that they will line up and I will be shot at dawn. As it is, my daughter seems to have discovered this blog. Google has its minuses.
Well I have a bone to pick with all NRIs. You expect time to stand still while you are away living the great American or Indian dream.
Maybe you people should be the preservers of our 'Indian culture'. As it is, the kids abroad seem to go for more veda and dance and music classes. Here, ours are lined up for computers and tennis and French . We're going places and Gandhian ways of living is not in the mission statement.
Of course, this is all a generalisation at both ends and feel free to hit me with it:-)
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