Thursday, May 17, 2012

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

6 comments:

  1. Lol, this sounds like a terrible experience. I hope the blouse was ok in the end though. Wow... The only time I would leave a blouse with a tailor for that long is if it were a very high-end tailor and therefore worth it. Most the tailors around here take about ten days. I'm curious, how much does it cost to have a blouse sewn in Bangalore? I think here it's around 80/- Rs.

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  2. It was pretty ridiculous. From what I hear it's not all that uncommon. He's definitely not the first in the neighborhood to have a bit of fun with the white girl. Unfortunately, once it strays into acting like an ass, I usually don't go back. :-) The blouse came out fine.

    Oh wow. It cost me 375, and that's not unreasonable here. That too, we don't live in a trendy section of Bangalore. We live on the north end on the border of a village, 1 step from out of town.

    It almost makes me want to try out village life for a while - dhobis and cheap blouses! :-)

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    1. 375... I'm shocked! lol... wow. The high end tailors in Cochin (and they do a really good job) are just at 200 for a blouse. And in the village, the tailoring charge for a salvar kameeaz is just 200. Definitely some advantages of Village life I suppose ;-)

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    2. Lol. As my mother in law is fond of reminding me, Bangalore is expensive! I probably will ask around the neighborhood and see if anyone else is charging that much. Always good to get a few opinions.

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  3. I'd rather wear clothes that don't fit me than go through that. What a jerk.

    Also, we're late to the party but thank you for the award you gave us recently! We both really appreciate it. Well, Brandon does especially, because he always sucked at sports as a kid, so being told he's good at something really means a lot to him.

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    1. Lol...not really a choice for the ladies. A blouse consists of a piece of fabric before it's sewn. It's just one of those things you grit your teeth through and make sure to find someone else who isn't a douche canoe. This behavior is definitely the exception rather than the rule. I moved here from New York and there were plenty of asshats there too.

      Lol...Here's to you Brandon. This just goes to show you that being good at sports as a kid really doesn't matter when you're grown. ;-)

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