Emotions and a white shirt

Introduction

This post is not just about a shirt, it is about my emotions, and a white shirt,an old shirt with small chequered pattern. The shirt by itself does not have much emotional significance. It is the human emotions and connection associated with it that’s relevant. I will try and share with you all what made me write about an old shirt which presently lies in the farthest corner of my closet. I hope the readers of this post won’t get bored. This is just an attempt to help my wife with a guest post to complete her A to Z challenge.

Background about the shirt

I got it as a gift from the extended family of my elder brother during his marriage. It is about 9 years old. I usually wear slim-fit shirts. But, it was a regular-fit shirt plus a size larger than I used to wear . Obviously, it did not fit me well, but since I liked the colour and pattern, I used to wear it sparingly and looked decent enough.

I was mulling on getting it altered for quite sometime but, could not manage to go to a tailor’s shop for this particular thing. After about a year or two, once I happened to be in a tailor’s shop where I was getting a new shirt-trouser set stitched.  Suddenly I remembered about ‘the shirt’ and decided to get it altered to get a perfect fit. It was done. It was not perfect though, but do-able. Times had passed. Many new things happened. I got married. I gained some extra pounds and after a couple of wash, the shirt became tight around the elbows. This time the problem was reversed 🙂 . Meanwhile, I got transferred to a new city. The shirt traveled with me to the new city and again it took a corner inside the closet.

The story

Just a couple of weeks ago, after a long time, I decided to wear that particular shirt since there was no press-ready shirt in my closet that day. As usual, it was tighter on the arms. I got irritated a bit and kept it aside and decided to get it reverted back to its original shape. While I was discussing this with the wife, our part-time house keeper cum cleaner, Pinky overheard us and volunteered to take it with her and get it done near her place. I got relieved: D. She took it with her in a carry bag. Next day she came and gave me a surprise. It is such that after doing daily chores in our home, she goes to another place nearby our locality where an old lady (aunty as we call her) stays by herself with her children settled abroad.

Pinky told me that she took the shirt along with her the previous day. Aunty out of curiosity asked Pinky ‘Whats inside the bag?’ Pinky as usual described everything in full details. Aunty told Pinky that as she really enjoys stitching there was no need to take it to the tailor. She would be happy to do it herself as ‘He is also like my son’. Pinky decided on our behalf and agreed to the suggestion.

After Pinky narrated the entire incident I was really touched with emotion as well as a bit awkward. She does not know us, neither do we, but have heard about each other via pinky sometimes. I was moved by her gesture and felt a connection with her, even without actually meeting her in person.

The LOL part

I got the shirt back after a day, with the stitches carefully removed. I had instructed pinky to get the stitches removed from all the sides including the sleeves part. But my instructions got lost in translation. Only the stitches along the sides were removed. Now, at this point of time, I shamelessly asked Pinky to request the aunty again to do the sleeves as well. She took it and after a day it was done. Now, the shirt fits me comfortably. Somehow, this incident revolves around my memory and I have developed an imaginary persona of that aunty. Hope I get a chance to meet her someday and thank her in person with some of my wife’s home baked goodies.

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and this is the E post.