This is not a fashion article. It is not a complaint rant. It is not another cliched confession of a shopaholic either. This is the story of how I became an adult.
There is a Pantaloons outlet 5 minutes from my place in Kolkata. For those who do not know, Pantaloons is a fashion retail store, owned by the Aditya Birla Group. It is my family’s go to place when is comes to shopping for clothes, mainly due to the convenience and variety it offers. When I say my family, I mean everyone else in the family excluding me- the reason being that my tomboyish self hates shopping. This is why, embarrassingly, most of my clothes were bought by my mother for the longest period.
This would probably still be the case if not for my education. No, education did not teach me how to shop. But it did force me to move away from home for college. Suddenly, I was on my own. Of course my parents were there every step of the way, but for an over-protected city girl with a huge family like me, moving away to live on my own was anxiety-inducing to say the least. But I took everything in my stride. Everything, until came the realisation that I was going away for COLLEGE! That meant no more sweats and tees. I’d have to have, to my immense dismay, FORMAL DRESSES in my wardrobe. Despairingly, I went to my mother to tell her about this enlightenment. As if this were not enough, my mother decided to add to my woes. She outright refused to help me shop. She merrily pointed towards the store and was done with it.
So, with heavy feet and a heavier heart, I made my way down the street to Pantaloons. I am not exaggerating when I say that I spent at least 10 minutes outside the store staring at the daunting green signboard, contemplating and pondering over all of my life decisions that led me to that moment.
To my surprise, shopping, (that too for formal dresses) was not that difficult. The staff there were extremely gracious and helped my wrap up my shopping spree in less than an hour (although the that could be attributed to my haste to get out of there). I returned home, much to the surprise of my mother who was just preparing to come after me (she did not trust me to actually accomplish anything by myself). Adding to her astonishment, I presented the shopping bags with a flourish. Even though she denies it, I could have sworn I saw a tear escape the corner of her eye. She told me, with the same dramatic flair that is ever present on me, “Lekha, today you’ve become a true adult.”
Part B
I have been blessed to be one of the very few privileged ones of the world. Life has been good to me in general, and where it has not, I have been blessed with just enough strength and support to overcome its challenges.
One of the major challenges I’ve faced in life has not been a physical or materialistic problem, but a mental and an emotional one. My family is a very well- off but still orthodox family. They are still not entirely supportive of working women, not because of sexism (although patriarchy is a still prevalent to an extent), but because they fear the world is not safe enough for women. My father loves me a lot, to the extent that he would wrap me in bubble wrap and protect me from all the woes of the world, if he could. This is the reason why he was against the idea of allowing me to go away from home for higher studies, and for work post that. According to his ideology, he had earned enough in life to allow me to live comfortably and my future in-laws would support me later on. Therefore there was no need for me to work and I should instead focus more on managing the household.
It was extremely difficult to change his mind, given that he was so set in his ways. I had to make him understand that while homemakers are indispensable to the society, he had to understand the importance of my personal choice of financial independence. I had to talk, explain, argue and sometimes even fight against his views to persuade him to see my way.
It was a long drawn battle, but I won it at the end, not because of my fights, but because of my sheer stubbornness and my parents love for me. Today, I am pursuing my MBA and am on my way to building a successful career, and my parents could not be prouder of me.
#ABGLP #ABGLPWOOMECOMPETITION #ABGLPWOOMESEASON2-SIBMBENGALURU
