The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

I have always apparently loved pockets. Mom's favourite story she recounts about me and my temperament involves pockets. I was maybe 3 years old but not more than 4. I spent the night throwing up. Mom had changed me couple of times. I was miserable and crying uncontrollably. It was somewhere around 3am during my fourth change or something, mom put on an outfit for me, a dress? She wasn't sure. She wanted to sleep. And said outfit had a pocket. I stopped my crying for the moment. Put my hand in it, looked up in wonder at mom and gave her the biggest smile and said, "it's a pocket!" And although I didn't stop throwing up, apparently I stopped my crying.

A pocket. Never to be found again on a dress, on a salwar kameez, nor on a langa blouse - any outfit a girl in India would wear in the 1970-80s. Saris were more creative, you just use the pallu (the part that goes over the shoulders) to tie items in, or tuck it into your blouse. still. I think my uniform shirt had a pocket? I don't remember. And when we moved to Rome, I loved pockets in jackets. I noticed the boys had more pockets than girls. But it wasn't really a big deal then because we hardly ever wore the jackets we had.

In Singapore, our school skirts didn't have pockets. And unless we had a religious objection, girls (and female teachers) could only wear skirts (it did change for the teachers though). But you know what did have pockets? Culottes. And you know there were only two girls in all of high school who wore them. One was me. All because it had pockets and I needed them for my hanky since I had terrible year-round allergies in my teens. I wasn't going to put my snotty handkerchief in my breast pocket! I was ridiculed enough as it is. So, I adorned the cullotes instead. It didn't reduce the ridicule. But they didn't bother me because I really didn't care. Pockets were important. (And ha! to them, apparently culottes are making a big comeback! egads!)

And after moving to Hawai'i, I forgot my love for pockets, because well, hard to insist on pockets on swimsuits. It doesn't make sense.

In India too, women didn't get pockets. Most of us got our salwar kameezes tailored. And tailors would refuse to give us pockets because they couldn't apparently. Men had pockets in their kameezes. So, it's not the sewing machine that couldn't do it. Anyway, we had other bigger issues to worry about.

And then FabIndia came around. They have done some amazing work and have great outfits. And we women finally got pockets, in the salwars and the kameezes but not leggings, well for obvious reasons - there I agree with no pockets! And I only shop with those who give me pockets. I have stopped going to tailors who twist a face into disgust when I request a pocket. There are other tailors who will do it. And they are losing their livelihood to the ready made industry, and so they kind of have to. And yet there are still more who don't give women pockets. I don't get why.

But apparently it's not just an Indian thing. It's an universal thing. When I first got here and looked at winter jackets. I noticed men got an inner breast pocket, and a ton of others that are actually usable. We didn't. My new jacket I got two months ago, finally has a breast pocket - for the smartphone/headphones!

We still have big issues we as a world have to face. But yay for these small victories!

And for the men, they should not be ridiculed for man-purses, because we are tired of carrying all their stuff.