Innerwear

I have just had a fantastic pair of trousers made. I bought some really good quality striped cotton, somewhat akin to the material Obelix wears - blue & white striped - and went to the tailor to ask him to make me another pair of trousers. As they only cost about 90p to make it would be churlish not to. The tailor fingered the cotton and said , "Very good madam. Very good quality. I like." I was very proud of my choice. He then chattered in Tamil to his two lady assitants, who were giggling behind their hands. As they usually do this whenever I enter the shop, I thought nothing of it. Pretty soon however, their laughter became almost paroxysmal.

Eventually I asked the tailor to explain. Well, that sounds like an easy request, but actually it took ages, with loads of hand gestures and pointing. "I have this material" he said, "I like" he said again. Yes, yes, but what was so funny.

"I have this as innerwear".

Oh, I get it. My trousers will be the same material as his underpants. Oh well, I thought, it's such nice material, I'm not going to waste it. So I went ahead and had them made. I wore them with pride yesterday. There's no doubt they caused a stir. Apparently, it's not just the tailor who has underpants made from this mateial. This is underpant material. It is not used to make anything else. Except my trousers. So essentially, I have been walking around wearing the Indian equivalent of a giant pair of Y-fronts.