What’s your indulgence?

A couple of years ago, I was spring cleaning my wardrobe, when my good friend and next door neighbour rang my bell. I had emptied the entire contents of my cupboard-- clothes, makeup, jewellery, jackets, handbags and many other things on my bed and was sorting and re arranging them. Since we are really close, I didn’t mind her seeing the contents of my wardrobe or my mess and so invited her right into my bedroom.

She sat cross-legged on my bed while I put away my stuff neatly. It reminded me a bit of my college days—I don’t think I have shared the contents of my wardrobe with anyone since those days.

As I was putting away each one, she was looking at them and we were talking about clothes like only two women can.

“So where are the rest of your pairs of jeans?” she asked

“These are it” I said. I had only two—blue and black.

She could not believe it.

“You have ONLY two pairs?” she asked , incredulous.

I had only two. "How can a woman live with just two pairs of Jeans?!" She asked

“How many do you have?” I asked her

I could not believe when she said she has seventeen!

Seventeen!! I don’t think I have ever had seventeen even if you counted the ones I have worn and outgrown my entire life starting from the time I was a little girl!

Then we compared notes about our clothes and make up and other stuff.

I had just four skirts (Two knee length, two short ones) two trousers, three formal shirts, twelve casual tees, two lipsticks (yes, I still have ONLY two) and ONE eye liner, no belts and no scarves.(I don’t use both) I had lots of sarees. (very expensive ones gifted to me at the time of my wedding--all packed away neatly in a suitcase on top of my wardrobe as these are all heavy silk that cannot be worn on a daily basis.I wear them only for special occasions)

She simply could not believe it. She found my wardrobe bordering on the frugal. She, I think must have had more than 20 of each item. Except the eye-liner. She had about seven of those. :-)

One thing I hate shopping for, is clothes. This same friend LOVED shopping for clothes and would drag me on her shopping sprees. I would be totally bored while she looked at clothes. I shop for clothes only when it’s absolutely necessary. I hate browsing through racks and racks of clothes. I’m extremely choosy when it comes to buying clothes. I am very hard to please. I also buy quickly as I know exactly what I want.[and I usually don’t find it :-) ]

Maybe my hatred for clothes shopping stems back to those days when all I could afford was cheap imitations of top of the end brands, bought off fashion street in Mumbai—they looked good—but a fake is a fake. I hated it and swore that when I could afford, I’d buy only the real thing.

Today almost all my clothes are branded ones--really nice higher end brands. I value them because it reminds me of those days when I could not afford them. And it’s rarely that I really like something in clothes—when I do, I buy two or three in the same style in different colours. (Most of my women friends say that in clothes, I shop like a guy—why buy three of the same style in different colours, they ask. It saves me the trouble of shopping for at least a year, I answer.)

But there are some things that I completely indulge in –Books (we have a collection of more than 400 books and it keeps growing), Long distance phone calls (to good friends), Art material and Expensive perfumes and not in that order necessarily. [So there, now you know what to gift me on my birthday--heh heh] I can spend hours in a book store or browsing through stationery section even in a super market. I simply love looking at different kinds of paper---water colour paper, handmade paper, quilling paper, craft paper origami paper, oil-paints, acrylic tubes, poster colours, brushes, craft material, erasers, tools, palettes, easels –all of it interests me.

But ask me to spend time looking at clothes and to be honest, I’d rather run on a treadmill for half an hour.(which is exactly what I am going to do just now--all this clothes talk itself makes me want to run) :-)

To each their own, I guess. That’s what makes each one of us unique. We all have our eccentricities, indulgences, fancies, whims, likes and dislikes.

So what is your indulgence? What do you spend on?