I'm Afraid I'm Going To Have to Punch the Tailor

Mood: Happy, in spite of it all

Listening to: Alien Vs. Predator

When my mother in law came to visit me last month, she brought me a sari. I was super excited because I only have 2, which I have worn many times, and can also drape my own saris now.  My housekeeper Indira recommended a tailor in our neighborhood, so we brought the fabric to have it sewn. Tailors here are typically men, even for the ladies.

When we walked in, the tailor was not very busy. He did however, give my mother in law a hard time and told her he only spoke Kannada (the local language in Karnataka, Bangalore’s state). He then refused to measure me to make sure the blouse he was going to sew would fit right. Tell me this – what kind of tailor doesn’t measure someone?  My mother in law measured me and read it off to him and he took notes. We also left a fitting blouse with him to assure he got the right idea. He told us it would be a solid month before the blouse was done. We both kind of shrugged because the sari really wasn’t a rush job.

1 month later, I took my husband to pick up the sari. For some reason, his shop was closed that day, so we went home. I returned the next day to find some boys tending shop. They told me the blouse wasn’t ready yet. When I questioned them, they told me the tailor was out and it would be best for me to come back the next morning.  I agreed rather unhappily. The next day, I returned to find the tailor in the shop. He told me unfortunately the blouse wasn’t done. Since this was the third time I had tried to pick it up, I gave him a bit of a hard time about it not being done. He assured me that the next morning it would be done if I came by. After asking him 3 more times if he was sure it would be done in the morning, I left.  My husband and I stopped by the next day on the way to my sister in law’s house to be told there was some problem. Could we wait a half hour? No we could not. My husband told him if it wasn’t done on Monday, we wouldn’t pay for it.

I finally got back there this afternoon and it was done. Cue the Hallelujah chorus.

I probably won’t go back to him again. After all, how will I measure myself? I also found it was funny that he spoke both Hindi and Telugu (the language of Andhra Pradesh where my husband is from) along with English just fine. He was just being a prick the other day. Ugh. I’ll find my own tailor, thanks.

In other news, the G family is headed down to do an oogling touristy trip to Sri Lanka. It is our big trip for the year and I am super stoked about it. Hopefully, since there seems to be some interest in my writing (!!!) I will be able to keep up with the blogging while on the move.

Becky