life through pink colour glasses: On the fence

Saturday, October 15, 2005

On the fence

In life, I’ve found that people respect people with a strong opinion. Or at least strong leanings. The opinion a person holds helps us form an opinion of that person.

Question: What kind of music do you listen to?
Answer: Trance, a lot of underground.
Opinion: Junkie.

Question: So what are your views on abortion?
Answer: I think its wrong, its taking a life and amounts to murder.
Opinion: Virgin.

It’s important you have a point of view, a clear like for one thing and a strong dislike for the opposite. It’s what you believe in after all, and can pretty much be what defines you.

But what if you don’t have such extreme views on everything? What if you like the colour black as well as pink and life for you mostly operates in grey? What if you like trance and alternative? What if you can enjoy sub-titled European cinema and slapstick American comedies? What if you make up the great ‘middle’ class when it comes to choices? What if you’re me?

Let me illustrate with the help of an example. (Real life is so helpful when it comes to writing blogs!) So it was 2003 and I was getting ready for my wedding. One of the most important, expensive and wasteful events of a punju wedding is the purchase of the wedding lehenga. You spend thousands on an outfit that you’ll wear once in your entire life. A wedding lehenga is like the Taj Mahal. An obscene amount of money spent in the name of love. Practicality: zero.

But it’s an important event in a girl’s life and the guilt of spending your parents money lasts all of 4 seconds so there we were; my mom, I and fat punju salesman surrounded by heaps of silk, satin and gold embroidery.

The lehengas had been coming and I had been rejecting. Somewhere along the way I realised it was rude to keep turning up my nose at the ugly shit he was showing us (oh and it was ugly!) and I tried a new, politer approach at rejection. “Um, it’s nice but I don’t think that colour suits me.”

When I said it all I was going for was an attempt at civility. But instead it sparked off what became a raging debate between my mother and fat punju salesman.
“Hmm…actually for her skintone maybe mauve will work.”
“No no, mauve works only for very fair skin.”
“Yes, but she’s not dark.”
“That’s true, but she’s not very fair either.”
“That’s true, but she’s not dusky.”
“No no, not at all dusky but not wheatish either.”
“Yes she’s fair-ish but not white. Not dark but not fair either”

I think that conversation became the defining moment of my life. I, apparently do not even have a skin tone that can be defined. How is such a person ever supposed to be able to have definitive views on anything?

I am one of those people who constantly operate in the twilight zone. Asking me to choose between two places to eat could mean you end up with 4 new choices. Here I am, still battling with choosing a template for my blog. God help me when I have to make bigger decisions in life. I envy people who know exactly what they like.

Sigh! I can just imagine what my obituary would read like when I die:

“We are sorta sad to announce the demise of That Girl In Pink. She was kind of fair, kind of dark, sometimes liked, sometimes not. She’s definitely dead but we can’t be sure where she’s headed. Maybe heaven, maybe hell…aah, with her, who knows?”

Posted by that girl in pink | 12:53 pm | 5 comments

5 Comments

at 5:25 am Vijayeta said...: LOL...Wedding lehengas are indeed like the Taj Mahal. And like the Taj Mahal, you can try rent it out for shoots etc ;)
And yes...talk about snap judgements. Phew!
at 12:14 pm Anonymous said...: Madam!!!

Ur obituary is way off the mark!!!!! It will read thus (if I have a say in it that is!)-

"Here lies the girl who was obsessed with PINK! And she was loved enormously by all who knew her. Her devastatingly gorgeous smile caused a million heartburns. If you din't catch a glimpse of it on planet Earth, be sure to do so in heaven."

Oh, there will also be a PS on how she deprived the world of her brilliant writing by not publishing it.

Love ya loads!
at 12:48 pm that girl in pink said...: Hi ladies,
thanks for the comments. confession: comments are the best part of blog writing.:-)
it's monday and for some unexplainable reason i'm feeling very cheery. the end of the world is here.
have a great week girls!
at 5:55 pm Anonymous said...: this is deep...and its really good..but remember soft and pastel...one of the guys have said something great about your smile...he's right..you just be...write till you burn the web down...and i will see you in del. And love that twilight zone. sometimes I wish for so much that i start worrying where will i keep all of that...
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