I also wanted a car like Batman's Batmobile and web-shooters like Spiderman. It took me a few years to realize that all the comic books super heroes were fictional characters and the cool gadgets did not exist in the real world then.
Then I turned eight and began to look up to real superheroes like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. All I wanted to wear was t-shirts with Hulk Hogan pointing straight at you. I even refused to wear a suit to attend my cousin's wedding. I thought it was cool to show off with Hogan. My mom was not impressed. But she had to let me wear the t-shirt because I threatened to lock myself in the bathroom. After the wedding party was over and back home, my mom taught me a thing or two about spanking.
Four years later, I figured out that wrestling was fake and it was nothing more than an act. Hulk Hogan was sent to the back of the closet. I no longer practiced my wrestling moves but decided to venture out with head banging. Heavy Metal bands were the central part of my life. I began dressing in all black. Black jeans and black t-shirts was my dress code then.
Then came another wedding and there I was dressed all in black. My mother was once again pissed off with my choice of clothes. I refused to wear a suit that day and everything went well during the party. When I got home, my mom did not spank me. She slapped me in the back of my head. It was more painful than the usual spank on the bottom.
Slowly, heavy metal songs gave way to grunge and other experimental stuffs. I began to wear shirts and cotton pants. I used to hang out with my friends wearing one of my dad's old shirts and pants. My friends wore leather jackets, dingo boots and fake Ray Ban glasses. My mom was happy with my dress up until she looked down and saw that I did not like wearing shoes. I was always walking around in slippers. I think I wanted to look cool and be different from the rest of my neighborhood friends.
I turned sixteen and was waiting for my SLC results. I did not have to worry about getting a hair cut because there was no Principal to threaten you to expel you from school if your hair was long. My parents were a little worried while some of the old fogies in the neighborhood were impressed that I was the only teenager wearing shirts and cotton pants. But of course, they thought I was going crazy because of my obsession with wearing only slippers.
Then I fell in love. The dingo boots and bellbottom pants lost the battle to win the heart of the neighborhood beauty queen. My shirt and cotton pants must have made me stand out from the rest of the fools. And the slippers must have also played its part, as well. Well, later on I found that I was only her part-time lover for her holiday break from school in Darjeeling. But it really did not make me sad because I had already moved on to rap and wearing baggy pants and acting like I grew up in Cali.
But during wedding parties, I began to dress up like normal folks. I wore the tie-suit thing. I shaved. I cut my hair like an army cadet but did not give up listening to hardcore rap or dressing up like a gangsta rapper during normal waking hours.
After a few years of living life to the fullest as a teenager, which is not listening to your parents, playing loud music at all hours and trying to experiment with what nicotine and cheap rum can do to your body, I decided to pursue further studies abroad. I boarded a flight wearing a white shirt and black pants. After a few months of going to school, I find out that my dress code was similar to the ones worn by waiters around the city. So it was back to t-shirts and jeans. Instead of super heroes, real or fictional, it was just about Everest and Nepal.
And here I am now, happily married and am learning to dress up again. My wife likes to see me in tight pants and t-shirts. If I comply, then I get kisses. If I don't follow her dress code and wear anything I can get hold of, then she gives me the stare and tells me that I should stop dressing like an old man. I tell her that I am no longer a teenager. But a few minutes later, I wear what she tells me to. I didn't listen to my mother then and learnt what spanking was.
I sometimes don't want to listen to my wife but her cold stare is more than enough to make me follow her direct orders to dress up like Salman Khan. My excuse of neither having a body like his nor having the big bucks falls on deaf ears. It's pretty difficult when wives want their husbands to be like celebrities, but of course, most husbands do have similar thoughts. I like my wife the way she is except for the part when I have to dress up the way she likes.
kalumaila99@gmail.com
Related story
Oriental spin on fall dressing
