Monday 4 April 2011

Tailor- mad(e) solutions!

I feel like hitting him with my handbag, but remain smiling focusing on a distant void. He scratches his head and continues to look bemused. I am not going to rise to his bait, i think to myself. Perched atop a shaking stool, i refuse to budge and it is now half past ten. All i can hear is the tut tut tut of his sewing machine. My eyes blur now but i sit rigid and by the time the hooks are tied and the blouse is in my hands, i let out a breath of relief. Thank God, i can attend my wedding wearing a blouse! I rush to take my train at twelve midnight, straight from my tailor! Our family has a great history of sitting with tailors and snatching stitched dresses at the strike of twelve midnight- starting from New Year night mass to Christmas night mass. My maternal Uncles took turns to wait in the shop of Star Tailor to get their pants stitched. Those were the days when there were no seros, peter englands- we had only Saravana Tailors and Star Tailors. Star was a star those days, uncles came to New Year masses well after twelve, with safety pins in pants- no time for fitting the zip you see!

Pic courtesy- Google
When i grew up, i was more attracted to readymade garments- salwars and skirts. But when i had to wear sarees, the readymades failed miserably and i had to find out a standard tailor. I started experimenting for almost three years. One stitched it too tight, one too big, one missed sleeves, one forgot to stitch hooks. After so many trials and errors, i settled for Sabari Tailors, Srirangam. It is almost half an hour drive from my home, but distance doesn't matter when  it comes to blouse and dignity! Fondly christened ANNA by me, Sabari anna stitches well, corrects flaws well but the only drawback- he never gives the dresses on time. I had to beg, threaten, weep and once sat for two hours stubbornly in his shop asking him to stitch a blouse. I hate that person who found out the saree-blouse combo.

Fed up with 10 day stitching period for a single blouse, i tried to stitch one on trial basis from a lady tailor nearby. Usha too was the same, she finally handed over the stitched blouse after 15 days. But to my shock and dismay, i found it a good few sizes smaller, may be she stitched it for my imaginary younger sister! But having a tailor nearby is always handy, so i gave her cotton salwar materials to be stitched once in a while- that are fit to be worn strictly at home only! Then i gave her curtains, bedspreads, towels- she is now aptly called "patchwork" Usha!!! Any wear and tear- Usha is there! I wish i took my stitching class seriously when i was in school. They taught us lot of types of stitches- herring bone, lazy daisy, french, back stitch, chain stitch, about twenty varieties. What they failed to teach us- how to get work done by a tailor!
Ranganathan Street- Pic courtesy Wikipedia
Talking of tailors and how can i not talk about T Nagar Ranganathan street's famous Tailors? Spinsters do weird things like do impulsive shopping. I was a worse example, when i boarded Pallavan Express one fine morning. Got down at Mambalam and bought some salwar materials in Kalanjiyam. Now came the thought, why must i take this all the way to Srirangam to stitch? There were innumerable tailors waiting for orders around Ranganathan Street who stitch in a jiffy and i decided to try one. I selected the most distant one who was obviously free. Handing him the materials, i was told to go shop for accessories and be back in an hour. My mouth dropped open, my eyes almost popped out an hour exactly later when the neatly pressed dresses were delivered with a smile! What service! I doubted the size, but they all fit well! After so many such impulsive trips, i was familiar with these inkie winkie tailors. But i lost touch once i got married and there was no time for such shopping trips to Chennai.

After a few years, i decided to test the waters there. Having bought four sets of material, i gave to one such tailor and collected it promptly after an hour. Imagine the look in my face when i tried one of the dresses when i got back home. First one- two sizes large, second one- failed to pull down beyond my head, third one- off- shoulder, fourth one- all rolled in one. Stupefied in shock, i ran to "patch work Usha" to correct them. After lot of hard work, she managed to rectify them, as usual fit to wear at home! Nobody else can get on my nerves so worse as tailors! God knows what happens tomorrow, Sabari Tailors is to deliver five sets of salwars tomorrow evening by eight. My train leaves at ten. That gives me 2 hours grace time to catch the train. Two hours is one helluva grace time, what say Sabari anna???






17 comments:

  1. 'You are an awesome writer"... First Saravana Tailor, Ranganathan Street tailors calling for people to stitch.. Wow they are the best memories of 'Chennai'.. I love your writings a lot.. just from your heart.. great.. smiles..

    and PS: thanks for your constant support and encouraging comments.. SmileS...

    Someone is Special

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  2. nice write up..:))I remember my chase to the tailor's shop every now n then for reminders and his false promises like tht of a politician:)

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  3. Ahh the chronicles of the errant tailors - we all have our bagful of experiences don't we!

    And my question is why can't tailors ever deliver on time!!!!

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  4. Dear SiS- thanks a lot for comment. Chennai always occupies a special place in all our hearts,doesn't it? And thanks for the P.S.:)Shall sure comment as often i can on Few Miles:)

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  5. Dear Raji- thanks a ton for your thoughtful comment, yes, these tailors are worse than politicians in delivering on time!

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  6. Dear Purba, thanks a lot for your visit and comment. Have to agree with you, these lot never deliver on time:(

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  7. Evn we hav similar Experiences ... the only difference is if the PANT Or SHIRT does nt fit You... the only thing u can do is "JUST THROW AWAY", any patchup or alterations or make you look like a BAFOON.
    EVEN i gave two pants to a tailor ... he noted same dimensions for both.. but both made me un-comfort in diff ways...
    in case of T Nagar ...the person may be got accustomed to stitching for some particular standard sizes ...
    and not to forget to mention u ppl who go onn.. give instructions... do this..do that...and atlast he will get confused with his wrk...and he may nt be able to cook ..what he desired ..

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  8. hmmm...happen same here....

    Good Post !

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  9. hahaha. Imagining a babboon in pants anonymous"

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  10. Well, talking of tailors - they never seem to deliver on time. There are tailors to whom you have to pay a visit every week to see if your clothes are stitched and they come up with all sorts of bizarre excuses.

    Last year, my husband gave some pants to a tailor in Chennai and when he went to pick them up, the shutters were closed. Later, he learnt from the neighboring shop that the tailor had a heart attack. So, he came back home saying that the moment the tailor looked at my clothes, he suffered a heart attack! Anyways, we managed to get the fabric back from him and went to another tailor hoping that he would not be struck by something looking at our clothes.

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  11. Very interesting and very well written :)

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  12. Yeah, tailor troubles are part of any Indian woman's life. I also had this nightmare before I got married when I nearly thought I would have to show up as "Amrapali" wearing just a saree or wear my mother's blouse. I go through these agonies every once in a while when a reliable tailor suddenly goes haywire. I now have a lady called Sushila who does my clothes. She does not call herself a tailor- she is a designer.. But god help me from this tailor..! The blouses she has stitched cannot be worn outside of a Tamil movie song sequence- they are so revealing. I am now seriously looking for our Hon President's tailor!

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  13. Dear Thinking and Tink Tank- thanks a lot for your visits and comments.

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  14. Dear Brown Vagabond, yes, you are right, it is indeed difficult to get work done by tailors, sad to know about your husband's clothes...Some tailors stitch so bad, you get a heart attack when trying the stitched clothes;)

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  15. Dear Meera, Thanks a lot for your time and comment. Thank God, your tailor saved you from becoming Amrapali;) And shall sure let you know Hon Pres Tailor's address once i know;)Till then, good luck with Sushila:)

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  16. Have you tried Harini's boutique in Thennur?? They are quite good but expensive and have huge "A"ttitude. If you do happen to visit them, please give a nice hard slap on that Fatty Bitch Harini's face. She is a Bitch with a capital B.

    She is quite close to my house and happens to be a relative of mine. When she started she absolutely had no customers and my cousin insisted that I give her the opportunity to stitch my clothes. I love clothes (its that simple) so I have couple of them stitched every month.

    Being a nice relative I got my friends to her shop. She has good tailors and she was good with time et al....fast forward few years, she paid off her husband's loan and decided she is a Queen of Tailordom and slowly started showing her egoism. As much as I hate her and her f***ing shop, I dont want to take the risk of giving to other tailors. If you do happen to find better tailors, please blog about it. Beware about stitching blouses, she screws it up every single time. Chudi is what they do best but give them precise measurements.

    - Pratty

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  17. Whoa! Pratty...thats some steam being let off here! I perfectly understand your plight...mine is no different. Lets together find some nice tailor, shall we???

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