Idu Naidu Hall Samacharam

Note : Cheeniya, TDU and other Indus- Ladies of male gender, please keep off.

In her FB to Cheeniya's brief thread, Vanaja had mentioned that the menfolk of her family are blissfully ignorant of their UG sizes and that it was the ladies' duty to keep them well dressed beneath their dothis/trousers. Well, i dint find that strange at all , for my own two uncles exhibit the self same underlying dependence for getting their basics , as they think it underneath their dignity to bother about such thongs .. er, things, for they had time and mind only for top-drawer interests like going to the office and going to the office and....g.t.t.o. X 365................

Anyways, coming to the matter of shopping for UGs, my own past holds a murky secret which is the opposite of Vanaja's household's. When we were kids, ( 4 in all,2 of each species), the person who shopped for all our hush-hush wear was....Father ! This strange but true but gross state of affairs was the result of two different stimulii.

One : Father, being a great fan of Lord Muruga, was in the habit of making three annual trips to Palan - via Tiruppur, the knitwear capital .

Two and more important : Mother was, and is, an extremely bashful creature suffering from toxic doses of victorian prudery , stopping just short of seggregating women writers from male writers in Father's bookshelf. For her, to go to the market and ask male shopkeepers for UGs was unthinkable horror. She'd blush a ton of beets even when handing father the monthly prescription list of our grandparent's medicines, because,buried in the yard long list would be the hesitant , illegible scribble naming her tampon. She preferred tampons to s.napkins because the packet was tiny and could be secreted in her box of handkerchieves.
When the foundation of the family ( meaning parents, the 4 of us and Young-aunt ) neede to be refurbished, mother wrote down the specifications for each one and packed it with the tiffin for father's Palani Pilgrimage. Upon his return, we'd have a cartonful of varied fare : Egyptian Cotton bloomers with and without lace, broad belted drawers, printed panties, chemise, pajamas, slips, briefs and banians........

This went on till we were late teens, mind you. And we never gave it any thought. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for Father to shop for our innerwear, 300 kms. away from home. And for him to sometimes make a trunk-call and shout T.R.Mahalingam-like into the reciever ( Trunk-calls presupposed shouting, remember ?) : " Chitra's size, is that 60 or 80 ?". And for the 17 year old big -sis Chitra not to bat an eyelash at the fact that half of Tiruppur would've got to know her size..............Years later, when her daughters accidentally got to know the family's undercover tactics, they were scandalised.
" Shameful !" Castigated the first one
" Shameless !" lambasted the second one.
And sis and I dutifully cringed like mice.

Tiruppur was not as well known for bras as for knitwear knickers. So, Mother and young-aunt had a clever arrangement to get theirs. Mail order delivery from Naidu Hall in Madras. But Sis and I dint much care for those cut-body stuff , which looked like the cholis starlets wear today, minus chamki. We would try to go shopping ourselves, but Mother would have none of it, of course ! "How can you stand in the centre of the market and tell your size !" she'd huff, clean forgetting Father's trunk calls. We couldnt very well send the housemaid with a slip, as we did for our Carefrees, either. It was always coldwar at home when mother stubbornly got us those awful stiff, coarsely tailored bras from her precious Naidu Hall........Until one fine day,she came home looking triumphant.

Mother was a member of a samajam called Divine Life Society which she attended twice a week to catch up on spiritual progress, the local gossip and household tips. But the biggest benefit from that godly club, according to me, was the tipoff she got about a lady called Rajalakshmi Mami who lived in Malleswaram,Bangalore. This Mami was doing great social service to women by getting fancy lingerie and personal care necessities from a catalogue service in Bombay, in bulk and discretely dispensing them to women in need. Like us. All very prim , propah and hush-hush. Personalised courier service. Unmarked brown packaging. Answer to Mother's prayers .
Naidu Hall was summarily abandoned and there was wholesale defection to Rajalakshmi Mami's invisible mall. And we started getting our Peter Pans without further battles.

But Mother still faints everytime my nephew returns from abroad carrying a bag of Victoria's Secret and Wacoal for his sisters.

manjula

Dear Manju

I always loved reading your posts and this one too was hilarious.

Well,same pinch! With 2 daughters at home,my Dad too used to shop for our secret stuff(well,top and bottom and the S.Napkins too) till we got married!!! He was never embarrassed about the whole thing.It looked like a natural thing for a dad of daughters to do!

Dear Manju,

Another enjoyable hilarious post with your trademark humorous style!! Absolutely loved it!!

Though i always admire the way u write & i try not to miss ur posts, must confess seeing the title i was a little wary since it wasn't in a language i understand. But thanks to curiosity, which got the better of me, i made my way in here & am i glad or what??

Great going!!

Ragini.

Dear Manju,

I too loved reading your posts and no doubt its hilarious

keep the posts coming

cheers
sreelatha

Hi Manjula,

As always a good post from you. I enjoyed the doses of humor sprinkled in. Loved that part where your dad would scream on the phone .

I have seen many male shopkeepers squirm and bash when women shop for S Napkins. I am thankful that these days we have these deparmental stores in India where you can just pick these things and check out without having to ask.

Rgrds,
Nivedi

Dear Manju,
That was yet another post with your unique touches.....

I enjoyed a lot reading your post............

Keep posting...........

-Shantha Kasi/:

Hi Manjula,
I loved reading your post. Your writing style makes your post more interesting. keep posting!
regards

Great post Manju.
Many men would think twice before they venture out to buy the 'basics' for us.
I still remember the time when I went for a "Lovable" sale and got the fright of my life when all the salespersons were men. Many were getting their sizes checked and were busily buying varied colours. I rushed out without looking back.
Thanks for bringing back funny memories.

Hai Manju, Wow Manju,........

What to say? A superb post as usual. My sides are still aching. Thank you and keep posting.

Regards,

Abha.

hi manju,
nice samacharam you are giving here and i know many should come forward to write, my son in law is in california and my daughter wants some nice lacy lingerie but she is scared to send him, you know why though there is a discount going on and the ladies walk in lingeries for promotion campaign and my daughter :mad: about it and so the delay. though she knows her chweety pie will not cross the limit but the visual how can you allow.
even my father used to get these for my mother who was also very shy going shopping for these and in the process many would buy strapless ones which she had to try as it was already purchased and i got to wear them when young so lovely when young all these things are new, and the exposure was great,
nice to know so many things happening in indus...sunkan