Its party time at home as my sister is getting engaged tomorrow and I am having a nightmare getting myself organised for the function. First there was this fiasco with my blouse, I have now developed a phobia of tailors, come on these guys cut things for a living, they are very very dangerous people and the one I had the misfortune of meeting has affirmed my worst suspicion. To add to it the mehendi applied to my hands looked hell bent of spreading all over the place as it dried, I have attached a photo of how it looked when the mehendi was applied, I really have no heart to inflict the photo of the finished product i.e. how my hands now look post the mehendi being removed... hideous comes to mind... Now I'm thinking of ways to hide the damn thing tomorrow, probably will have to wear a couple of dozen of bangles on each hand by the look of it!!!
First things first, let me tell you the story of how I learnt that I shouldn't shop for jeans with J. Every time there is an occasion that demands for a saree I land up at my tailor and beg, plead and threaten him to please make me a decent blouse (by which I mean something that I can wear in functions teeming with assorted aunties, uncles, grannies, grandpas, without giving any of the aforementioned a coronary, you get my drift), because my tailor feels "If you have it, flaunt it" and he is the kind that just won't listen to what I have to say, he will make the blouse the way he wants to. Also this time I went a little OTT and bought myself a really exquisite saree and decided that I needed to go to a really good tailor who would do justice to my saree by stitching a blouse that would complement it perfectly. Accordingly I spoke to P, she lives at Ghatkopar which is teeming with gujjus who are connoisseurs where sarees and blouses are concerned. She enthusiastically agreed to bring me to a couple of tailors in her locality. Accordingly I arrived at the tailor and told her what I wanted, since my saree is made of Georgette, I decided to have transparent cap sleeves, decent length in front and a good fitting (as the Princess Cut is a tricky piece of work) if you aren't very careful the thingies that were burnt by the liberated woman in the 60's would show like no body's business. The allowance I made was that she could keep it a little deep at the back, but since I wasn't going for a very deep back I wouldn't need a doori (I'm very allergic to anything too girlie) and made it abundantly clear that under no circumstance was she to put a doori at the back. A doori is nothing but strings attached to either sides of the blouse at the back, which are tied once worn and it helps to keep the blouse in place where the neck is too deep, thereby avoiding chances of costume malfunction with the blouse falling off your shoulders. She charged me a bomb to stitch the blouse Rs.775 plus Rs.30 for the lining cloth and asked for an advance of Rs.500 which I promptly paid her. This is where I made the first mistake, she looked dodgy and she pocketed the money but didn't mention anything on the receipt about the advance paid. Instead of getting her to rectify the mistake I told P about it, but she also said I needn't worry too much, this was my second mistake I should have listened to my gut feel and got the amount updated on the receipt. P offered to collect the blouse for me as Ghatkopar is on the other side of town and would be a huge hassle if I had to travel all the way just to collect a blouse. As it is I had spent over Rs.300 to and fro get to Ghatkopar for stitching, so the blouse was actually costing me Rs.1,000 already. Then the ordeal began...
P went to the shop to collect the blouse on the agreed day and was told that the blouse was just on it way, she could settle the bill while she waited for it. She agreed and accordingly fished out Rs.305, the lady demanded Rs.500 more, to which P told her of the advance, the lady's demeanour underwent a drastic change and she flatly refused to acknowledge the advance, no amount explanation worked and at that point she said the blouse was not ready, P could come in the evening to collect it. A teary P called and narrated this incident to me...given the situation it was now of utmost importance to get the blouse, whatever condition it was in, from the tailor. I called the lady and tried to reason, finally when it was abundantly clear that she would not budge, I told her to keep the blouse ready and that I would pay her the full amount. I left work a little early and after spending half an hour somehow managed to find a rickshaw willing to go to Ghatkopar (the round trip to Ghatkopar cost me Rs.250). The blouse now costs Rs.1,750 plus mental stress that I cannot put a price on. When I arrived at the shop the blouse wasn't ready, I waited patiently and after a good 30 minutes...the grand piece of work arrived, she had ignore each and every one of my instructions. I now have a blouse that had lining in the sleeves, the neck is so deep that it went any deeper it would be a backless, the hooks that are needed to keep the blouse in place at the shoulders are missing, it is so short that it looks more like a bikini top with sleeves and the piece de resistance....she put a DOORI at the back. When I pointed out that I had specifically asked for a blouse without a doori, she pulled out a scissor and snipped the doori OFF...more like "off with your head".That's when I lost it... I paid her the money, gave her a piece of my mind and told her that she had lost business of close to Rs.50,000 thanks to her behaviour (I planned to bring my sister here and refer her to other relatives for the wedding clothes) on hearing this bit of info, she seemed to have something of an epiphany with regards to the Rs.500, but it was too late...
I narrated my sorry tale to my colleagues at office and said I learnt that it is better to stick to the known devil, at least I know what to expect, A shot it down with "Don't be an Ass, the lesson to be learnt is that you need to learn from the experiences of others, go to tried and tested places and better still use the experts, who asked you to go blouse stitching with P, would you go shopping for jeans with J ?". A little background, my friend P is mostly in jeans and the only blouse she has owned in her entire life is the one she stitched for her wedding and J doesn't like jeans very much and is almost always in salwar suits or the most exquisite sarees.
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