If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?
When I was in Grade 10, my uncle visited India and he brought down a few hand-me-downs from cousins living closer to him. In that collection was a pair of levis, from the men’s collection, but we didn’t know any better. Typically, gifts were purchased in random sizes and were given based on the person who best fitted into them. The levis were a perfect fit like it was designed for me. Of course, it helped that I was 2-dimensional in those days. To be honest, it fit so well, that I did not even require a belt to hold it up. So, without arguments, that was my gift that year.
I had my grade 10 preliminary exams in January and then another mock exam in early March, before the final board exams in April. The preliminary exams were scheduled with one paper per day, although our board exams were scheduled with 2 papers per day. I finished the preliminaries on 10th January and a couple of days later I developed a rash. I have never had an allergic reaction, so I had no clue why I had the rash. But when I came back home, I showed Mum the rash, and then she called Dad and he took one look and said, ‘She has measles, but you can check it with Dr. R.’ Dad was a medical representative, not a doctor or nurse, but he was on point on this diagnosis. I was prescribed a mild sedative and was instructed to sleep for the duration of the illness. I was in quarantine and I got the bedroom and my siblings slept in the outside room. For every meal, Mum would prepare a bowl full of Rasam rice with lesser rice in a soup-like consistency followed by ½ tablet sleeping pill and Dad would lie next to me and press my head and hold my hands so I did not itch or scratch at the scars. Before I fell ill I had fought with Dad, and through my illness, he spent every waking hour nursing me back to health, while I continued to ignore him while I was awake and required him to press my head while I slept. I was bedridden for 15 days, but it seemed a lot longer than that. I had lost a lot of weight and was barely able to sit up. It took me another week to muster enough energy to go on the walk, Dad insisted I take to hasten my recovery.
While going to school, we had to wear a uniform and to go to the gym we usually wore a pair of track pants and a tee shirt. But here, Dad was sending me on a walk and I was not going to exercise, so I wore my jeans. It fit a bit loser, and I did not think about it too much. I was excited to be going out for a walk. This time, my older sibling was entrusted with ensuring that I walked properly as my younger sibling had gone to the gym. I missed the gym and wanted to go back to exercising, but more importantly, I wanted to just walk that route, the FOMO hit me hard. I told my older sibling that I wanted to walk towards the gym, she looked at me and without saying anything, she just recommended we go around the block once, and if I was up to it, then we could push a bit more. I agreed but 100 steps into the walk, I was exhausted, so much so, that she held my hand and gently encouraged me to walk. And to make matters worse, the jeans that fit slightly looser were quite loose, they kept slipping off my hips and I had to hold those up as well. The walk lasted that single circle around the block. I went back to bed for the rest of the evening. And Dad decided to use the jeans as a yardstick for my health. He told me that I could restart exercising at the gym the moment I could walk around the block without holding the jeans up. It took another week, but eventually, I became strong enough to be able to walk around the block a few times without losing a breath. And the jeans started to fit properly again.
As a school-going student, my day outfit was the school uniform and in the evenings I used to wear track pants and teeshirts to practice gymnastics, so I hardly had the free time or the opportunity to wear anything else. And that’s how I made this particular pair of levis last me a few years. The following year, when I started preuniversity, I spent the first few months in the Levis. Levis and shirts were my ‘go-to’ option. I usually wore plaid shirts, I even picked a few floral ones a couple of months later, so my typical dress code would be a plaid shirt and the levis with a pair of boots. graduated grade 10 and started pre-university. I spent the first six months of preuniversity in those Levi’s and shirts. The Levis took the form of my body, or maybe it was my body that took the form of the Levis, but I’ve never found another pair of denim that fit as well as those first Levis.
I’ve always favored a pair of well-fitting denim and a shirt over any other kind of outfit. This was my ‘go-to’ for any kind of event. When I got pregnant and started spending more time at home, I rediscovered my love for track pants and teeshirts. Their comfort and for the lack of a better word, lounge-worthiness ensured I wore them during most of my first pregnancy. Somewhere in between I remember my sibling visiting me and convincing me to get back to wearing regular outfits again. By this she wanted me in denim and ever since, I have always worn denims during the day and track pants only to bed. So, if I were forced to wear one outfit, it would be a pair of well-fitting denim and a shirt.
Just a little more 