Mom enjoyed shopping. She always had a list of items ready in her mind – clothes, grocery items, items of decoration etc. The list changed each month and with seasons and festivals. She would choose a working day of the week for her shopping expeditions as it would mean that the shops would not be crowded. She would sit for hours at the clothes shop checking the cloths, the texture, the print, the colour and judge the extent to which it would meet her requirements. She would not bother as much about the price. Those were the days when the concept of shopping mall had not invaded our lives. She would visit half a dozen shops and select cloths once she was completely satisfied.
She took me on one of her shopping expeditions. She had decided to buy three sarees as there was a family function coming up. One of the sarees was meant for her use and the rest two had to be given to her sisters. She took two hours to decide on the saree that would suit her the best. I was getting impatient and asked her to hurry up. She explained that she needs to buy a saree of a particular colour- she said there should not be any repetition which meant she should not have saree of that colour in her wardrobe. I was amazed that she remembered each and every colour of saree that she had- she had so many! or so I felt. She took an eternity to finalize the sarees for her sisters.
When we got home, she showed what she had purchased to dad. He was not much of a shopper and usually purchased what was required. He looked up from the newspaper that he was perusing for a brief moment and said Hmm and got back to reading the paper. My mom was visibly upset as he did not appreciate her efforts. She expressed her frustration when he asked for the amount she had spent. She placed the bill in his hands and stomped off saying “All you care about is money”.
I had the chance of shopping with my dad. The entire trip took about half an hour. He had purchased material for shirt and pants. We were back home within no time. A sweet argument started between my parents about the respective hours each had spent . My mother won the argument hands down as she simply said that there is not much of a choice for gents and so your shopping expedition was completed so quickly.
Mom preferred to eat sweet while dad liked spicy food. Whenever she made pooris, she made a few sweet pooris (sugar coated ones) apart from the regular ones. My brother and I enjoyed both the contrasting flavours. We had the best of both worlds!
Dad was a stickler for time and his restlessness was something to behold when we needed to go out. Mom was calm never hurried but reached her destination in good time. Dad on the other hand used to grow restless and would start for the railway station or the destination a good two hours before the actual time even if we needed to cover short distances. Sometimes dad would reach the destination and mom would join him much later but at the right time. We used to have a good laugh over this!
Dad was a cleanliness freak while mom was lenient on this. He would not stand mess and hated it when we made a mess of the living room with our craft and painting efforts. We used to finish and clean before he came back from work. Mom encouraged us. Dad would still find out and we would get a dressing down.
I have inherited a few of mom’s traits and a few of dad’s. My kids too notice the differences I have with my spouse and even draw parallels of our characteristics with that of our parents.