Saturday, June 17, 2006

chiclet

so all these new girls with their fresh and not-so-fresh rebonded hair, in varying states of straightness waltzed in. in their ultra hip low tight jeans, with those funny belts, toothpick legs, weird pokey looking shoes, BLING [!] jewelry, strangely sparkly shimmery make up, that im-so-hot-give-me-some-brains look. and all at 5 30 pm. its a bit much to take all that gloss and glitter when the sun is still shining outside. between all their shrieky high-pitched helloooos and greetings and all the kissing in the air, suddenly all eyes are on me sitting there in my checked faded buttoned down shirt, grubby jeans and 7 year old floaters, and i get the wow-what-planet-are-you-from? look. followed by the you-SO-dont-belong-here look.

then the snug armpit hugging teeny-tiny bag opens and a comb comes out and the hair is smoothed back in place. and the shrieking and high pitched conversation continues till they're seated. like some premature induction to kitty parties. they all look like different coloured versions of the same doll. out of the same mould. same hair, same clothes, same accessories, same phones. bah.

and one of them turns all the way back to look at me - regular chic with regular real hair, no make up, a boring bag with stuff thrown in, waiting for someone whos always late. suddenly i realise i know one of them. no wonder i didnt recognise her earlier. shes changed. A LOT. we used to take the same bus to school. when she'd envy me because i was allowed to go out with friends, have dinner or watch night shows in male company, when i went to the freshers party, when i went to the bryan adams concert, when she had a 7 o clock curfew, and she had to slog her ass off studying science because her parents 'told her so' and didnt give her a choice.

the worlds a funny place. 4 years down the line i feel like i havent changed so much in these basic ways, in who i am and the way i am. and people my age, friends from school seem so different and so far away from where i still am. where i chose to stay.

i guess cardiff was a liberating experience for her. she got to see the world outside of her house on 17th cross malleswaram, and the extended world that was coffee day malleswaram. i was already free..so nothings really changed in a way.

4 comments:

Manu said...

people tend to overcompensate once given freedoms that they didn't have.. just feel ppdu, and grateful that u have ur head on ur shouldORs rah. we shd all be grateful. so many ppdu ppl have nothing, they just need to experience certain things and get past em. i thinkso.

akshay said...

it's about balance. the race is long, but in the end, it's only with yourself. and some of us have realised that.

Revati Upadhya said...

maybe theres something wrong with me. in the way i feel about myself, and people in general. barista is like a little piece of bombay. ARGH. its so friggin pissing off.

aakriti said...

Lol!! The description about those 'hot' women is perfect. I don't think there's anything wrong with dressing up and being stylish. But, most women around have no style of their own. They look like everyone one else. And i think it's become more like a fashion amongst the 'chic' clan today, anyone who doesn't look like you should be looked down upon. Great write-up.