Monday, August 10, 2009

The saga of the blouse piece

The Scout whined and writhed his way through his first *symbolic* haircut at the temple on Sunday. Symbolic because just five wisps of hair were cut. This was followed by a festive lunch at home with friends and family. Lunch included poori, saagu (vegetable kurma), bisi-bele-bath (heavenly-rice-preparation-lost-in-translation), alu bonda, anna(rice), saaru(rassam), towwe(dal), kosambri, gulab jamun and a few other accompaniments. Co-ordinating all that was the easy part though, I swear. Co-ordinating the various blouse pieces, bangles and assorted gifts to be given out to people, according to their distance from the center of the universe and other celestial objects to merit such gifts, was the hardest part of the event. The critical section here was actually the blouse piece gifting. A logistical nightmare because of the differential and integral calculus level formulae that need to be applied to determine who gets what kind. For example, if you are a close friend who helped us with something once, you might get a pure silk one. If you are a friend who is acting off lately, you might get a silk mix in a totally random color. If you are just an acquaintance you might get a cotton blend. If you are "too modrren" you might get a smaller piece. And please do not ask about the utility of gifting a piece of unstitched cloth of unmeasured length, random material, and arbitrary color unless you want to incur the wrath of a million aunties for whom the joy of receiving and giving blouse pieces easily compares to the glee with which kids receive and give candied goodies at their parties. I'm glad to report that said blouse piece gifting was accomplished smoothly on this occasion. Commanded by the mil, who is the font of all knowledge when it comes to fast and accurate calculation of the degrees of separation and the gift exchange history of each family member, strategic military precision planning happened to organize said gifts in advance. Queueing theory was applied and an efficient supply chain was established to streamline the process. And all the maamis returned home with their own precious 'blouse piece' goody bags. Now with the expertise acquired after my first successful mission, I want to create a 'blouse piece' gift on Facebook and generously gift every unsuspecting friend and non-friend with it. Isn't that a neat way of upholding the tradition? Would the mil agree? :P

13 comments:

  1. Wow there is a blouse-piece gifting ceremony?
    That's something I didn't know!

    How old is the Scout by the way?

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  2. There is no blouse-piece gifting ceremony (AFAIK) but it is the default goody bag to the women folk in most South Indian traditional functions. :) Scout is 8.5 months old. :)

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  3. Oh okok. So what does the blouse piece signify?
    Or its just for the sake of giving something?

    Awww Scout is soo tiny!
    :)

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  4. According to my grandma, it made sense at one time (50-60 and more years ago) when everyone wore cream / off-white blouses with all sarees. It seemed like an appropriately usable gift then along with kumkum, bangles and flowers as women did not accessorize with much else. But I think right now it's just done in the name of "tradition".

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  5. Oh, the joys of selecting those blouse pieces. I used to beg my mom to leave me out of the horror when she wanted me to accompany. :P

    One small doubt - What if the said happy faces showed each other the pieces they received form you. Would there be a little earthquake? :D

    Glad the ceremony went well..and the menu made my mouth water..slurrp.

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  6. AHK: The commander says there does not have to be uniformity in the process as "everyone does the same thing".

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  7. Is only a South Indian custom. I am going to assume the North Indians want the whole damm saree with the blouse and petticoat piece. When I did my son's mundan in Singapore, my chachas demanded it and I bought them entire sarees with blouses and petticoats. My mom said bangles as well and I told no!

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  8. asaaan: I see. :) I think the whole set is at least useful irrespective of the price component. And that is done here for the first circle. :)

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  9. this post HAS to be in my top 10 fav. posts of all time! i loved it!

    MiM

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  10. MiM: You are like my God blogger. :) Please do not flatter me. Feels like Krishna coming to Sudhama's house or one such analogy. :)

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  11. dropped by from MiM's blog.. I had to read what this "blousepiece logis" was all abt.. n ROFL at ur post! Love it too.. in our house, I let MIL take full ownership of this task.. keeps her busy n out of my way ;). n the menu!! really mouth watering.

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  12. Came here thru MiM.

    Spot on post :) Completely agree with you on how the degrees of separation and gift/help exchange history plays a vital role in determining who gets what blouse piece!

    Lucky you, handled only one event till now. Matrons like me face it quite a few times every year :)

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  13. Shruti: Welcome! Yeah, will fully delegate next time. :)
    Anon: Welcome! *Bowing* Will ask for tips next time. :)

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