Come winter and I am on tenterhooks. It is sweater time, see? He has a special thing about this item of apparel. I take all the care to fold/hang them right so that he wouldn’t wear them inside out. And do you know what he does? He wears it the right way. So what are you cribbing about woman, I can hear you asking me. Wait. He can’t keep wearing it all the time, right? When he takes it off at some point he flings/hangs it someplace.
Now comes the crunch – the next time around, the sweater goes on inside out, with the stitches and labels showing in all their glory! With sweaters it is – the right-side-out- once and wrong-side-out the next, unless I remember to fold them the right way every time he takes them off.
I know I shouldn’t be lazy and remember to turn the T-shirt, vest or sweater the right side out while folding them. So what’s the big deal, you can always turn it the right way before wearing it you say, right? Wrong! Not if you are the L&M. He wears it as he finds it. While it happens to the rest of us once in a way, it is a routine affair for the L&M. Can you believe it that he actually doesn’t notice that the item of clothing is inside out? Even that’s ok compared to his wearing his vest or round-necked Ts back to front and not notice it. Can you believe THAT?
Apparently it is a fashion trend for youngsters to wear their clothes inside out. But then it is a deliberate act. With the L&M it is more of an unselfconscious thing, something he does without giving it another thought. I never cease to marvel at how nonchalant he is about the whole thing. I really envy him this yogi-like detachment about his appearance.
The other day we went to the vegetable market. One of our neighbours, a talkative old lady collared me for some gossip. The L&M was busy lovingly picking out vegetables, completely oblivious to the jostling crowd around him. Just as he bent to pick up a cauliflower, I noticed it. I had not seen it when we had left home, not all the way to the market, but there it was now staring at me, the label at the neckline — which should have by rights been inside was outside! In fact, it looked as it was winking happily at all and sundry for having got a chance to see the world! The L&M was wearing his T-shirt inside out. I would have happily dug a hole right there and buried myself in had it been possible. I frantically disengaged myself from the old lady and hurried the L&M away post haste from the place, surreptitiously glancing at everyone, expecting them to be smirking at him.
Once inside the house, I began nagging him for being so careless about his clothes. He didn’t turn a hair. So what is the big deal? Why are you so upset? Tell me who cares how I wear my clothes?’ He asked me. I rolled my eyes.
Actually I shouldn’t be complaining about him, not me. I have never been a spiffy dresser at the best of times. Even in college, while my friends dressed to kill and some, I made do with the minimal wardrobe of a handful of saris not bothering even to match them with the right coloured blouses. A single long plait completed my ensemble. Over the years I have sort of reformed, or so I would like to think. My friends and family beg to differ though.
You would have all heard about how a couple becomes increasingly alike in their behaviour and mannerisms over the years. I can vouch for it. For though I admittedly am a shoddy dresser, I take care not to wear my clothes inside out even at the worst of times. That is something I must have ‘caught’ from the L&M, I’m sure. My poor eyesight is only compounding the problem. But while he is unconcerned about it, I can’t help feeling self-conscious and embarrassed if I ever do it.
You should see the trepidation with which my daughter-in-law waits for me to get ready every time we go out. She has good reason to feel apprehensive. The other day while we were leaving for the Indimeet, she gave an approving look at my matching sari and blouse, hair all set…and then, ‘Amma, your sari is inside-out!’ she exclaimed. Thank God she was around to caution me or else I would have graced the occasion in all my inside out glory!
I remember another time when I had gone out, a shawl hurriedly thrown over my kurta. At the bank, I noticed nary a thing amiss and happily completed my work and then chatted with the clerk while she got the print out of my statement. It was only when I came out in the sunlight that I suddenly noticed – the inside out kurta! Having traipsed all over the place till then completely unaware of the tiny embroidered flowers blooming the wrong way, I suddenly became conscious of it and tried pulling the shawl over the offending garment futilely tying to hide it, thanking my stars it was winter and for the shawl. I am sure all the pulling and covering must have alerted the passersby around me to something being amiss, if not the actual slip-up.
I sometimes wonder if the L&M doesn’t have a point – who has the time to look at you? Don’t people have better things to do than wonder about your appearance? I guess we are too egoistic and tend to imagine that we are the cynosure of all eyes. While it is true that an outlandish appearance or a garish make-up might attract attention, a simple thing like an inside-out T-shirt or sweater might just go unnoticed unless you make a big deal out of it. Come to think of it, if everyone thought like us, they would be equally self-conscious about their appearance too, wouldn’t they? I am by no means justifying shoddy or careless dressing, but….
Now all of you who are reading this, please do me a favour – don’t let on to the L&M that I find merit in his point of view, or else he will completely stop bothering about how he is wearing his sweater the next time we go out. And the winter has only just begun!
The Cybernag 
Browsing through your old posts now. First of all, I did not know that the sweater must be the right side out and then the left side out next time :). About inverse clothes, my husband deliberately reverses his Tees at night to sleep in if it is one he was wearing during the day because he does not wish the sweat side to be in contact at night :). Whatever! And, then he would wear the Tee the same way before sometimes venturing out closeby. I had this experience when I went to a mall recently and was trying out some T shirts. I was wearing a long top with tights. Now this top looks suspiciously similar on the outside as on the inside. I wore it inside out without realizing it, walked out, went to 3 different stores and finally when we were ordering lunch, hubby says aren’t you wearing it inside out? I glanced at myself, we both laughed loudly, and I rushed to the rest room suddenly all watchful :). I am sure no one even noticed. But it can be embarrassing.
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Your L&M sounds absolutely delightful! Reminds of my father in a way. My dad is like this – uncaring about his appearence. At my wedding reception, he was dressed all spiffy with tie and all. Which is all fine except he forgot to wear his formal shoes and ended up with his usual comfy sandals! Suit and sandals – a new fashion statement for seniors!
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Suit and sandal sound dandy 😀
The L&M goes one further than your dad. He asks me why I bother so much about how I look too! Looks like I have to start a fan page for the L&M 🙂
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am amused, does this really happen – atleast proves one thing that i am hardly observant. 🙂
L&M is cool dude.. !
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Welcome here Mayank. L&M a cool dude? He’ll be thrilled to hear such a compliment after all my nagging 😀
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Hilarius read…Rings a bell.
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Welcome here and thanks for the comment Alka. Purba is a real sweetheart. Lots of people come here from her blog. Liked your blog too.
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So we are a big club indeed. I wear my T-shirt inside out, pajamas front in the place of back and vice versa and pockets gone crazy , and worst nightmare is most often I forget to zip myself 😛 so much that it has become my wife’s habit to first check my zip whenever I dress up ;)and without her around no guessing what the scenario would be…
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Oh your poor wife! Back to front is something that gets rectified because it is uncomfortable, not like inside-out 🙂
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hahahaha…as rightly mentioned before, you do have the knack of turning seemingly mundane things into something hilarious! Wish you a happy new year with plenty of more tales to tell us!
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Why, thank you Richa. I believe in the dictum, ‘grin and bear it,’ you see 🙂
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Hehehe…I know a senior who went to college like that,for a whole day.Best part no one noticed..
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Doesn’t it go to prove that the L&M is right about no one being interested in what you are wearing and how you look? 😀
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Quite funny. In fact, it was last week I believe between Christmas and New Year. I had touched down in London for a brief while that fateful day, to unpack my bags from Glasgow and pack for the next phase of holiday with the flight being in the evening. To top things, had a lunch invitation which I had apparently forgotten and was happily sleeping off the bus journey when a call brings me back to reality. Given the tight schedule of things, I hurry out in record time only to arrive for lunch in a tee worn inside out. I’m sure that day will come back to haunt me later… for now its peace 🙂
I would say its the ‘what if’ which drives us to try and be properly dressed apart from ‘social norms’ laid down by ‘some people of yesteryears’.
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Hey Sumit, welcome back and a happy new year to you. Looks like you are travelling too much. Hope you had a good holiday. Friends are fine since they would point out our mistake matter-of-factly. It is strangers that we need to be wary of — like the cabbie who took you there, the people in the block who noticed it and so on, right?
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Ha ha ha, felt as if I was reading our story. My husband wears his vest inside out all the time. And if I say so, he says it is my mistake that I did not correct it before folding it. I wore my kurta inside out once while I went to pick my son from school, noticed it when the nanny gave funny looks. Salwars; I wear them ‘ulta’ all the time 😀
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Thak God your son is too young to bother, else he would have banned you from coming to school forever 😀 You know what the L&M says when I point out his inside-out gaffes? ‘IT will be the right way the next time!’ So I am at it all the time, spooking him out 😀
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Ha ha….what a hilarious post ! Trust you to turn something so mundane(and most of us would be guilty of the offence sometime or the other !;-P)into such a humorous write up ! Love your L&M posts ! Hats off !
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Awww…Z…so cute…u and the L& M are def made for each other…inside out clothes and all.
Happy new year Z…Here’s to a fantastic year ahead where both u and the L&M wear your clothes the right way in and in case u dont…i hope neither you or the rest of the world notice 🙂
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😀 Thanks Nut! Rest assured that whether anyone else or I notice it, the L&M sure will not notice anything amiss. 🙂
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Hey,
That’s a pretty sweet article 😉
Loved the humour you spin into the mundane things. Who knew wearing clothes inside out could produce such a good article!
P.S. Started reading your blog today. Why do you call him ‘L&M’?
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Welcome here Vinitha and thanks for the comment. Just came back from your blog and found it really good.
The reason he is called the L&M is because he is the Lord and Master (or so I let him think 😉 )
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Hahaha…. we women let ’em think that don’t we 😉
Talking of which, I am in search for my L&M and hoping to find him soon! lol
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All the best for your search! Do send me an invite for the big day when it is fixed 🙂
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My mom cribs all the time about Dad not bothering about shirts she leaves out for him carefully matched with trousers, but instead takes out the most faded one out of the bunch because she hasnt had the heart to throw it away and wears them with some awfully mismatched trousers..half our skype chats go in her cribbing about how he embarasses her by making her look like a careless wife who doesn’t bother how badly turned out her husband looks..My poor dad, who thinks he’s a style hunk just gives me those puzzled looks..:)
its hilarious..you just reminded me so of ma..:)
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I hate winters, in addition to being tense all the time about how or what he is going to wear the next time while going out but also keep putting away all the winter clothing that he liberally litters all over the place. I can empathise fully with your mom. Embarrassment is an understatement for how we feel 🙂
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hahahaha.. will u believe if i say i do the same…
yday was out with a guy, sorta date.. we wr sitting at the marina and asks, “R why are the pockets hanging out”.. (i was wearing a shirt dress) *faceplams* i felt like jumping into the sea… he is a friend though and started laughing his guts out *double facepalm*
this is not new, i just do this often.. wear tees and kurtis inside out to office and dont even notice until i take it off in the evening.. ofcourse, no one bothers.. they think i am eccentric coz i am the creative person.. 😀 😀
so dont worry amma, we are all the same 😀
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Hey Ratzzz, it is a fashion to wear your jeans inside out with the pockets hanging out! So you were only being ‘with it’ and not committed a gaffe 🙂 As for the kurtis that you take off, think of the advantage a la the L&M — you can wear it the right way the next time 🙂
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You are a match made in heaven. And seriously Zephyr, everybody is too busy preening and looking at themselves to bother about your inside-outside gaffes. But rest assured, the next time I meet you guys I’ll be definitely looking out for your tags sticking out.
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Exactly what I was afraid of when I finally pushed the ‘publish’ button. Rest assured that I will make triply sure that neither of us has an inside-out apparel while we meet 🙂 And though it is easy to tell ourselves that no one is bothered, it is difficult to cultivate the detached stance of the L&M and then there are those like the lady Abha encountered, aren’t they?
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The truth of the matter is…. people do notice. They do comment. Once in a hurry to go to the tailor i wore my salwar shirt with backside as front. Now since the back side had no embroidery , another woman standing in the room quickly noticed my mistake. Oh! she was full of glee as she pointed out my mistake. Now i NEVER take such things lightly thereafter 🙂
As for L&M his nonchalance sounds sweet :). good luck for winters!
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People can be sadistically cruel at times. Like Ratzzz you could have got away as a ‘creative personn’, but sometimes repartees don’t come to us offhand, do they? Well, I for one always check my clothes in sunlight before going out, as the electric light can play tricks on my bad eyesight. thanks for the good wishes. i need all of it 😀
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My nani does it at times with her shirt and if you point it out she goes,” Ki farak penda hai, I don’t have to impress anyone and whatever I wear I look smart anyway ;)” So if a lady at 82 can feel that way, I think Mr. L&M is cool 🙂
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Another fan for L&M? Hmph….If he is like your nani now, wonder how he will act at 82 😛
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Often this kind of goof up happens while wearing ‘Baniyan’!
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But thankfully that is inside the shirt! 🙂
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lol! have heard this story somewhere before! 😉
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Welcome to the club, Magiceye 😛
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