Hand me downs and Hand me ups...
Well, hello peeps, I am back with another mia familia post...this one is about the ubiquitous hand me downs that we all grew up on as kids.
Well, the rule of our entire family (esp the maternal side), was that the older ones got the new stuff and later it got passed to the ones down the line. This made the older ones (esp me, as I was the oldest) kind of smug about the "new" stuff we got. Of course, one realizes much later that the younger ones have it much better later in life, the older ones are the guinea pig on whom parents experiment and learn the fine art of parenting better. But, anyways, sticking to the topic now..I actually liked the hand me downs and even wanted them, which I got occasionally from the Viswanath side of the family. But the age gaps were very wide between me and the next oldest person (Girish was 2 yrs older but studied in a different board in a different city and Vinod was 4 yrs ahead of me). The only hand me downs (HMDs) I got were clothes occasionally from Sudha (Girish's older sister).
In the Narayan side, with clothes, Myself, Sandy and Shilpu were the proverbial 3 musketeers. We got the exact same clothes in 3 different colors. The logic was that we could exchange and Sandy's and mine would get passed to Shilpu eventually, so lucky pig got 3 sets in 3 different colors instead of just one set (you see here how parents hoodwink the eldest one? Make them feel special but actually they are being royally shortchanged??)
Anyways, there was a time when for Virmani Mama's wedding reception, Shilpu and Sandy got the exact same red fan like pleated dress (which btw holds the distinction of the most passed on outfit, even Vinoo wore it once as a baby and we got pics clicked of him...such a cutie he was then!!). I got a white pleated outfit with a red coat, which I wasn't too happy about because the other two were officially a team and I wasn't :-( but then again, the adults brainwashed me into thinking I was the Queen and all! Of course, once the pics came out, I did look like the Queen (he he he...). Clothes also went in reverse order (Archana is gonna kill me for this), after Archu went to Bangkok, a lot of her t-shirts came to Vidya as she was thinner in those days. Our parents pathologically bought oversized outfits for us in those days, otherwise you would grow out of it too soon. of course, you would look all weird and baggy but style wasn't high on anyone's minds then. Today, Anagha's clothes are passed to Tanisha in the same reverse order!
Hand me down books have their fun moments. I remember passing on books to Sandy and in one of the textbooks I had tick marked with red ball point pen at the end of every chapter and written "very good", "excellent" and all. Sandy was quite bugged because of this. She, in turn would draw eyes all over the text books, this would come to Shilpu, who would complete the face (Sandy, Shilpu and Archu are the family artists). By the time the book would reach Vidya, it would have all sorts of scrawling and drawings and remarks on boring teachers and fat teachers and smelly teachers and goodness knows what not...maximum remarks in history textbooks I think (our teachers should really re-think that subject) and also hindi textbooks (considering that hindi teachers were generally fat and smelly and wore sleeveless blouses showing off sumo wrestler arms for some strange reason). I still love old books and still buy them from old bookstores. Especially the ones with scrawlings, they give a glimpse into people's minds at that time.
The best hand me down was a doll which Shilpu had, a Russian type face dressed in Santa's suit for some reason. Shilpu named it "Laali", I felt it was more "Paapi Gudiya" (after a horror movie about a similar looking posssessed doll). Anyways, she was eerily attached to it and eventually, it changed hands to Vidya and then Archana. Archu actually made it a real Paapi Gudiya. She had blacked out one eye with sketch pens and drawn all sorts of voodoo sketches on the forehead and face (the only drawable part made of plastic and rubber, rest of the doll was stuffed with foam). It would give creeps even during the day! Some other toys were preserved, 2 dolls which we had named Julie and Lucy, a police van which made sounds, water toys from Sweden, video games (pocket scramble and rain shower) from UK and numerous Bangkok toys which made their way to Vikas-Vidya too! There was also a Superman outfit belonging to Shilpu which Aditi also wore (Sandy and Vidya's cousin)
Today's parents have lot of pride issues, our parents just thought about saving money and using it wisely for the future. They originated the concept of recycling. Today, we talk about recycling so many things, but we don't recycle the simple things like clothes or books or toys for that matter.
Well, that's all for now, its a rather long post..please feel free to put your comments on this post about your experiences too. taa taaa!!
Well, hello peeps, I am back with another mia familia post...this one is about the ubiquitous hand me downs that we all grew up on as kids.
Well, the rule of our entire family (esp the maternal side), was that the older ones got the new stuff and later it got passed to the ones down the line. This made the older ones (esp me, as I was the oldest) kind of smug about the "new" stuff we got. Of course, one realizes much later that the younger ones have it much better later in life, the older ones are the guinea pig on whom parents experiment and learn the fine art of parenting better. But, anyways, sticking to the topic now..I actually liked the hand me downs and even wanted them, which I got occasionally from the Viswanath side of the family. But the age gaps were very wide between me and the next oldest person (Girish was 2 yrs older but studied in a different board in a different city and Vinod was 4 yrs ahead of me). The only hand me downs (HMDs) I got were clothes occasionally from Sudha (Girish's older sister).
In the Narayan side, with clothes, Myself, Sandy and Shilpu were the proverbial 3 musketeers. We got the exact same clothes in 3 different colors. The logic was that we could exchange and Sandy's and mine would get passed to Shilpu eventually, so lucky pig got 3 sets in 3 different colors instead of just one set (you see here how parents hoodwink the eldest one? Make them feel special but actually they are being royally shortchanged??)
Anyways, there was a time when for Virmani Mama's wedding reception, Shilpu and Sandy got the exact same red fan like pleated dress (which btw holds the distinction of the most passed on outfit, even Vinoo wore it once as a baby and we got pics clicked of him...such a cutie he was then!!). I got a white pleated outfit with a red coat, which I wasn't too happy about because the other two were officially a team and I wasn't :-( but then again, the adults brainwashed me into thinking I was the Queen and all! Of course, once the pics came out, I did look like the Queen (he he he...). Clothes also went in reverse order (Archana is gonna kill me for this), after Archu went to Bangkok, a lot of her t-shirts came to Vidya as she was thinner in those days. Our parents pathologically bought oversized outfits for us in those days, otherwise you would grow out of it too soon. of course, you would look all weird and baggy but style wasn't high on anyone's minds then. Today, Anagha's clothes are passed to Tanisha in the same reverse order!
Hand me down books have their fun moments. I remember passing on books to Sandy and in one of the textbooks I had tick marked with red ball point pen at the end of every chapter and written "very good", "excellent" and all. Sandy was quite bugged because of this. She, in turn would draw eyes all over the text books, this would come to Shilpu, who would complete the face (Sandy, Shilpu and Archu are the family artists). By the time the book would reach Vidya, it would have all sorts of scrawling and drawings and remarks on boring teachers and fat teachers and smelly teachers and goodness knows what not...maximum remarks in history textbooks I think (our teachers should really re-think that subject) and also hindi textbooks (considering that hindi teachers were generally fat and smelly and wore sleeveless blouses showing off sumo wrestler arms for some strange reason). I still love old books and still buy them from old bookstores. Especially the ones with scrawlings, they give a glimpse into people's minds at that time.
The best hand me down was a doll which Shilpu had, a Russian type face dressed in Santa's suit for some reason. Shilpu named it "Laali", I felt it was more "Paapi Gudiya" (after a horror movie about a similar looking posssessed doll). Anyways, she was eerily attached to it and eventually, it changed hands to Vidya and then Archana. Archu actually made it a real Paapi Gudiya. She had blacked out one eye with sketch pens and drawn all sorts of voodoo sketches on the forehead and face (the only drawable part made of plastic and rubber, rest of the doll was stuffed with foam). It would give creeps even during the day! Some other toys were preserved, 2 dolls which we had named Julie and Lucy, a police van which made sounds, water toys from Sweden, video games (pocket scramble and rain shower) from UK and numerous Bangkok toys which made their way to Vikas-Vidya too! There was also a Superman outfit belonging to Shilpu which Aditi also wore (Sandy and Vidya's cousin)
Today's parents have lot of pride issues, our parents just thought about saving money and using it wisely for the future. They originated the concept of recycling. Today, we talk about recycling so many things, but we don't recycle the simple things like clothes or books or toys for that matter.
Well, that's all for now, its a rather long post..please feel free to put your comments on this post about your experiences too. taa taaa!!
So where do i even begin with the "LAALI" Doll!! Those "Voodoo" marks on the forehead were actually Archu's attempts at making Eyelashes :) The artist n her couldn't resist making those...I also remember her taking the soft bit of the Sketch pens, mukkufying it in water and making the pink cheeks turn almost vermilion!!
ReplyDeleteOn the clothes' front, i remember how exited Athai would get that Shilpa's clothes would fir me Perfectly (Haaaaaaa...how I wish that was still the case) .. They were stashed away in the cupboard with lots of Naphthalene balls weeks after!!
As much as i hated them as a child, I too believe, there was a certain bond we all shared just because of HMDs :)
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