The years we grew up, we looked forward to summer vacations not only for the holidays it brings but also for the old clothes from the visiting cousins from across the country. Normally, all the cousins living in different parts of the country would make it a point to visit their grand-parents and spend some time with them. For the people like us, who lived with the grand parents in towns, we really looked forward to the visit of not only the cousins but also their moms. Why? The simple reason is they brought lot of used clothes of our cousins for which they have outgrown.
I grew up with one cousin who is exactly a year older to me. So it made it easy for me to get perfectly matching clothes year after year. My Aunt who lived in North India, (Actually she lived in the West, but for us any place beyond Bangalore, is North India!) brought with her exotic varieties of trousers, shirts, t-shirts, Churidhars, Gowns, Midis and Jeans! Yes, Chruidhars and Jeans were such a exotic dress 25 years ago for us and we were thrilled to hold a pair of used Jeans or Churidhars.
My Aunt meticulously packs the clothes in a pillow cover and hems the edges so that during her long 2 1/2 days of train travel she could use it as her pillow and once she reaches the destination, she just has to unlock it and hand over the goodies to all of us who were eagerly waiting for her arrival. When you have cousins of your same age group, you fight with them to choose your favourite pickings from the list.
Now, looking at the current scenario, at least in our family, the practice of passing clothes are slowly dying. I think the overall economic prosperity of our country has made it look like it is below our dignity to accept used clothes. We all want to give the used clothes only to some unknown charity rather than to cousins.
I grew up with one cousin who is exactly a year older to me. So it made it easy for me to get perfectly matching clothes year after year. My Aunt who lived in North India, (Actually she lived in the West, but for us any place beyond Bangalore, is North India!) brought with her exotic varieties of trousers, shirts, t-shirts, Churidhars, Gowns, Midis and Jeans! Yes, Chruidhars and Jeans were such a exotic dress 25 years ago for us and we were thrilled to hold a pair of used Jeans or Churidhars.
My Aunt meticulously packs the clothes in a pillow cover and hems the edges so that during her long 2 1/2 days of train travel she could use it as her pillow and once she reaches the destination, she just has to unlock it and hand over the goodies to all of us who were eagerly waiting for her arrival. When you have cousins of your same age group, you fight with them to choose your favourite pickings from the list.
Now, looking at the current scenario, at least in our family, the practice of passing clothes are slowly dying. I think the overall economic prosperity of our country has made it look like it is below our dignity to accept used clothes. We all want to give the used clothes only to some unknown charity rather than to cousins.
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