My Daddy's Banian
Posted 23rd June 2009 at 08:26 AM by malspie
Vests were in vogue until the early 90’s but slowly disappeared only to return with colours and new style quotient of wearing ‘only vests’ to exhibit the ribbed body!
Vests are locally called as ‘Banians’ and men made it a point to wear them before they don on their shirt! Guys who wear a shirt (there were few!) without the famous ‘Banian’ were labeled as ‘hippies’ or ‘Rogues / Mawalis’.
Most of the men always had a huge stock of them in their almirah (wardrobe was yet to be in vogue!).
The oldies wore with sleeves and the trendy youngsters and the middle aged ones wore them without sleeves!
My daddy loved to wear his vests without sleeves and he was very particular of the brand and the material. He loved to buy them and mom always encouraged him to do so, the reasons will be given later!
He would not discard them easily; a small hole at the place where he tucks the vest inside his trousers was not considered for discarding it. Mom would eagerly wait for the hole to appear on the banian and dad would ignore the hole.
The moment a single hole is visible on it, I can hear her saying, “Why don’t you discard that banian? You have so many in stock, but you will not pick a new one and wear, what are you waiting for? In my family, none would wear a banian with a hole even at home and your family… khandaan.. “. Mom had no reason to paint the town red on seeing a small hole on my dad’s banian and that too at a place where he tucks it in his trousers!
Hyper mom would deafen dad’s ears and finally, dad would give it up (mostly in a day or two, in case of all arguments!).
The moment dad discards the banian, mom has a homework to do! After the hearty lunch on a Sunday (Mom is a working woman too!), she would ask us to get ‘that banian’ of daddy. She would sit with a big scissor. Mom would appear as a genius tailor to us or rather a fashion designer. We would sit and watch her do her job. Genius Amma would slowly cut the sides to open the banian, then she would cut the neck line of the banian to make it a broad one piece cloth!
Wow! It is ready to be used as a mop / duster to clean the kitchen table or mop the floors too! Dad after his afternoon siesta would wake up with a pale face to see his banian stained with the first spill of tea on the kitchen platform. “Oh, you have cut and used it also”, Dad would say with some choke in his throat. “What else, can we do with a banian having a hole?” Mom would seal the conversation.
Later the same idea was used on his Tee Shirts too!
I dedicate this blog to my best buddy who reminded me of ‘Dads Banian’.
I ran to the nearest mall to pick up few dusters to give my maid to mop the floor and the matter was urgent as the old ones were nearing to be in tatters! At this point, my best buddy who had buzzed my cell phone told me, “You should have given her your old Tee Shirts, how come you forgot the ‘dad’s banian’ days!
Vests are locally called as ‘Banians’ and men made it a point to wear them before they don on their shirt! Guys who wear a shirt (there were few!) without the famous ‘Banian’ were labeled as ‘hippies’ or ‘Rogues / Mawalis’.
Most of the men always had a huge stock of them in their almirah (wardrobe was yet to be in vogue!).
The oldies wore with sleeves and the trendy youngsters and the middle aged ones wore them without sleeves!
My daddy loved to wear his vests without sleeves and he was very particular of the brand and the material. He loved to buy them and mom always encouraged him to do so, the reasons will be given later!
He would not discard them easily; a small hole at the place where he tucks the vest inside his trousers was not considered for discarding it. Mom would eagerly wait for the hole to appear on the banian and dad would ignore the hole.
The moment a single hole is visible on it, I can hear her saying, “Why don’t you discard that banian? You have so many in stock, but you will not pick a new one and wear, what are you waiting for? In my family, none would wear a banian with a hole even at home and your family… khandaan.. “. Mom had no reason to paint the town red on seeing a small hole on my dad’s banian and that too at a place where he tucks it in his trousers!
Hyper mom would deafen dad’s ears and finally, dad would give it up (mostly in a day or two, in case of all arguments!).
The moment dad discards the banian, mom has a homework to do! After the hearty lunch on a Sunday (Mom is a working woman too!), she would ask us to get ‘that banian’ of daddy. She would sit with a big scissor. Mom would appear as a genius tailor to us or rather a fashion designer. We would sit and watch her do her job. Genius Amma would slowly cut the sides to open the banian, then she would cut the neck line of the banian to make it a broad one piece cloth!
Wow! It is ready to be used as a mop / duster to clean the kitchen table or mop the floors too! Dad after his afternoon siesta would wake up with a pale face to see his banian stained with the first spill of tea on the kitchen platform. “Oh, you have cut and used it also”, Dad would say with some choke in his throat. “What else, can we do with a banian having a hole?” Mom would seal the conversation.
Later the same idea was used on his Tee Shirts too!
I dedicate this blog to my best buddy who reminded me of ‘Dads Banian’.
I ran to the nearest mall to pick up few dusters to give my maid to mop the floor and the matter was urgent as the old ones were nearing to be in tatters! At this point, my best buddy who had buzzed my cell phone told me, “You should have given her your old Tee Shirts, how come you forgot the ‘dad’s banian’ days!
Total Comments 28
Comments
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Dear Mals,
Hope to be the first one to give the fb. I was wondering how Mals knows what used to happen in my place????????
In my mom's place the same was carried out but not by mom but by myself...my dad's & brother's banian was the wonderful dusting cloth for me. Even now I have a fascination for them.
Thanks Mals for taking me back...Posted 23rd June 2009 at 08:37 AM by Lalitha Shivaguru
Updated 23rd June 2009 at 08:37 AM by Lalitha Shivaguru -
Mals,
The same incident has happened in my house hold too..
Posted 23rd June 2009 at 08:37 AM by SupriyaDinesh -
Rightly said Mals, not only banians, even the sarees, skirts, which are all cotton, meet their fate as the duster or the cleaning cloth..
sriniketanPosted 23rd June 2009 at 11:37 AM by Sriniketan 
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True Mals,
Adding to Sriniketan's list is -Cotton nighties .
Recently My mom used my brother's College T-Shirt, which he was preserving for years.As he is not using it, my mom mistook and used it.Posted 23rd June 2009 at 01:12 PM by subhsk
Updated 23rd June 2009 at 01:12 PM by subhsk -
Hi Malspie,
A scene in every other home !!! Even I wait for my hubby to discard his cotton tees, so that I get more dusters..Different dusters for different things..And yes my DH is not in habit of wearing banians ( OOPS he is not mawali) ...Nicely narrated..Posted 24th June 2009 at 05:16 AM by Deepali_deepali
