Sisters and Suits

my parents picked me up yesterday from campus where i loaded my whole 5 years worth of things and some junk to lug it back home to Melaka. thank heavens i've given away all of my books and notes (that saves me a good 20liters of space) or else i wouldnt have a seat in the car. the boot was filled to the brim and there were some spill over at the passenger seat.

so then we headed to ipoh and stopped by shinder bollywood (a shop on Little India selling punjabi suits and sarees etc). mum wanted to sew three suits from the materials she had. and while we were there asked me if i saw anything i liked. i was looking for the barbie doll suit (its fittin on the top and flairs out at the waist) but i didnt find any that looked nice, they either looked ugly or too gaudy. and yet my mum who never lets me buy a suit everytime she's there was pretty insistent on me gettin something, which was really weird for me coz this has never happened before.

we then headed to the next shop (this shop is run by the brother of the lady who runs shinder bollywood) to see if there were better options there. this is the case of a different shop but same story. this time around, my mum was not about to give up so easily so she suggested i looked at the materials and sew a suit instead. another weird episode coz the logic she used ALL this years is that a person my size can always get a ready made suit (which is true not including all the alterations i have to do coz the sizes are too big for someone so tiny like myself) therefore there is no need to spend money sewing one. i do see her logic in this. depending on the material and eloborateness of it, they cost a minimum of RM150. and to sew will incur an additonal RM30 or Rm65 if you include lining. and this is for the same suit you can buy ready made at about RM100.

she was pretty persuasive in me picking out a material. so i looked and the owner showed me a good 40 designs for me to choose from. i had to even insist he didnt open some of them whenever i saw a colour i didnt like. but nope, he wouldnt listen and opened up everything in the end. so there i was flooded in a sea of colours trying to pick out something i liked. the selection was pretty good but only if i was looking for an ordinary suit. and i wasnt. what i had in mind was something grand, something spectacular, something WOW. and i didnt get that mojo looking at my choices. nothing really made me feel like "YEAH, now that's the one i was looking for".

at long last i found a pretty nice colour, yellow background with green patterns on it. but even this was very ordinary. i was actually kinda hoping to find a nice outfit for my coming graduation and this just do not make the cut. long story short i got it still coz mummy dearest was going to get a material for herself if i didnt buy one. oh yeah, she was not leaving that place till we bought something.

i really felt something fishy was up. like why would of all people my mother insist on me getting a suit when every other time i accompany her and i do find (i ALWAYS do) something i like, she'll find excuses to not buy it. ironically, the only time she gave me a free hand in choosing, i didnt find any that i particularly liked. well, anyhow, so i dig around a lil bit more when we got back to the hotel and then the whole story came out.

last weekend was barsi and during this time suits go on sale and almost everyone who is anyone would be shopping like crazy and bargaining like its the only thing that would secure their lives on earth. ok, i do exagerrate but you get my drift. as the last 5 years went including this year, barsi falls during finals and i couldnt make it again. and i discovered that the suits my sisters picked out for me were, how do i put this, not up to standard aka not grand aka very very simple aka theirs is superbly and fabulously beautiful compared to mind. OMG ! so out of guilt, my mum wanted to get a suit to compensate for it!!! yes, that's a nice thought but i was pretty upset with my sisters.

they go every year and couldnt they just pick out something nice for me for a change. cant they when they see a nice suit say, "hey, let's get that for kul" instead of grabbing it for themselves? every year without fail, i get the remnants, the ugliest ones, the ones that no one else liked and i have no choice in choosing them at all. and after so much of warning and partial begging in getting them to get me a nice suit, i ended up with really cheap ones. like the suits my sisters have for themselves cost a good RM150 at least. wanna guess mine? the most expensive one (i only have 2 btw) is rm50! now you do the math and convert the monetary value into the exclusiveness of their outfits. i'm telling you, its a HUGE difference. and belle had the cheek to tell me, "Oh, you mean this one, nah, this is such a simple one i got myself..."

are you crazy? her supposed "simple" one was really really grand and she dared say it was SIMPLE! gosh, i wonder what her grand must have been like. so using her scale, mine is definitely ugly. not that it was particularly ugly, they are just pale in comparison, completely background suits compared to their red carpet suited outfits. at that point of time, i wished i just walked up to belle and slapped her in the face, shake her real hard and scream WAKE UP, DONT YOU SEE MY SUITS HERE!

oh, that's not the end of it. belle could kindly put on a very sweet smile and said if i didnt like the ones i have, i could pass them over. like are you mad? i only have 2 and even that you want. hell no way. i dont have to like them but i most definitely am not going to give them away. you wanna swap, yup, we could negotiate. but to give away, wow, do you think i'm a charity organisation?? oh no, i'm much smarter than that my dear belle.

geram geram geram. is this wat its like to have sisters? anyone? help. me poor soul with leftovers, not so nice suits while my sisters have ones that make them look like princesses. sigh