On renting a costume

A light-hearted look at kids school requirements

As all parents who have small children would know, one important address is the local costume rental shop. There are not too many such in Delhi hence the one’s present are rather popular and famous. A visit to them for renting a costume can be quite an experience.

 

 One day, a school circular informed me that my daughter had to become “any animal” on the coming Friday went to the rental shop mentally thanking the school authorities for the liberal “carte blanche” which made things easier. On entering the big store, I found myself surrounded by rows upon rows of shelves laden with costumes in varying hues and textures. Many were made of some woolly fur. Seeing that it was summer and my daughter would feel incredibly hot in one of these, I decided to choose an animal which had the “thinnest” looking skin around. I settled on a “goat” skin. It was thankfully available in my daughter’s size .I was about to ask  for the accompanying face mask when my daughter pointed out that there was a long tail attached to the costume. “Isn’t that nice!” I said rather absently.  “Mama!” she said sternly “goats have very short tails!” I complemented her on her accuracy and asked for a more “authentic” goats costume. I was told they all had long tails - it came from the “back” like that ( it took me a while to comprehend that in his case the “back” referred to the production house/factory and not the animals derriere ). My daughter seemed to have a preference for the cat family so we found a nice leopard costume. The fur was a bit thick, more like a polar bear’s though the colour and spots were right. This time I pointed out this discrepancy to my daughter but she shrugged her shoulders and informed me that this much latitude could be given. I asked for the face (mask). When it came, I told the salesman that he had wrongly got a tiger’s face. He said “madam only this face comes from the back”. “Do you mean to tell me this “universal” tigers face is used with all the cat family costumes?” I asked. He nodded assent. I was incredulous. I asked him if he did not think it was odd to pair off mismatched faces and bodies. He merely shrugged, not wanting to take any responsibility for the limited versatility of the “back”. Finally in desperation, I lied. I told him that the child’s teacher was very strict and did not tolerate any deviation from nature kindly (my daughters teacher is actually a very gentle soul). I told him I was petrified of her wrath and could he somehow find a costume that was true to nature and depicted the same animal from face to bottom. This appealed to his instincts (maybe he had a dragon of a teacher) and I could see a determined resolve to “save” me come over his face. Hours (certainly seemed like it!) later, I was able to come home with a bear costume for my daughter. I made up my mind that in case my son had a similar jungle requirement, I would simply send him as “Mowgli”!

 

On a more recent occasion, I went to a different costume shop. My mother had accompanied me. My naughty little daughter had elected to be the angelic Sita and my son, Hanuman. Accordingly, the shopkeeper produced the dress elements that went into the making of Hanuman. First came the puffed out cheeks (mask) to be worn over the mid face. My mother made the shopkeeper (who looked a little uncomfortable with this request) wear it to demonstrate. Satisfied, she next proceeded to lift the cloth mace and then asked him to do the same. He was not sure where all this was leading, but he obliged. She then triumphantly pointed out that he had also required some effort to lift it! The crux seemed to be that he had unthinkingly given too heavy a mace for her little grandson. A lighter mace was duly found. Next she held the tail behind her back and asked him to do the same. A fearful look crossed his face: he probably had this scary vision that he was going to be asked to now leap about his shop to demonstrate this asset. He got off lucky; she merely pointed out that such a heavy tail may well disturb the equilibrium of her grandson’s walk and cause him to topple in the direction of the tail’s curve. A lighter, less bounteous asset was produced but, alas, it had no hair at the end. The shop tailor was given the task of producing a quick growth from the tail’s end which he did ably with some bits of black cloth. The crown, clothes and belt were also painstakingly selected. The shopkeeper, by now had surprisingly warmed to the whole game and was found extending full support more cheerfully to my mother .When it came to my daughters turn, a simple white sari for Sita, I thought I detected a gleam of slight disappointment in the shopkeepers eyes !

 

 

All in all, these little shops are life saving devices. The alternative: sitting up late at night and trying to make chart papers depict fruits /animals et all by using paint and scissors is rather daunting if you are not from the cadre of Gujral, Menon et all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Anecdotes on parenting ... the lighter side...

Reviews

[A. Amos]

Well I think this tale would be interesting for your country readers, Otherwise I enjoy your writing skill!