Fancy Dress

When playgroup reopened after X'mas break early this month, Pranav got his monthly schedule and the teacher had planned for a Fancy Dress event where the kids were supposed to go dressed as any bird. Suraj and I thought that we'd rent out costumes, so didn't worry about it much. But his teacher made an announcement last week that no rented or purchased costumes would be allowed, and that it had to be made at home. I was like wth..!! But I didn't want to disobey her neither did I want Pranav to miss the event. So I thought hard, Googled, asked some friends, and even asked Pranav what bird he wanted to go as. His current favourite bird is Eagle, courtesy - the Eagle who sits on the terrace of the building opposite every day. But I managed to persuade him to be a peacock, thinking that I would stick some peacock feathers (Mayilpeeli) to his shirt and finish it off. 

But Revu had a different idea. She said it would be better if we stitch the Mayilpeelis to the back of his T-Shirt. So we bought some Mayilpeelis last Sunday from a shop nearby that sells stuff for Pooja... some long ones, medium ones and very small ones. I bought the small ones as stand-by, thinking that they could be cello-taped to his t shirt, in case he made a fuss to wear the Tee with the big Mayilpeelis.

Anyways, Suju and Revu set out on working on it on Sunday afternoon while Pranav and I slept. They soon discarded the idea of stitching it, as they realized that sticking it to a double-sided tape and sticking the double-sided tape to a cardboard strip was a better idea. The cardboard strip could then be fixed to his back with a belt. So simple!

So by the time I was awake they were already sticking the Mayilpeelis to the tape. So all I had to do was to give some solid 'kantraak', and click pics. The whole process only took about 20 minutes or so.

It looked good when it was done, but Pranav just refused to try it on. We thought he would wear it on Tuesday morning for school. So rest of Sunday and whole of Monday all of us kept reminding him every 35 seconds or so, that he had to go as peacock to school on Tuesday and there would be so many birds in school. He totally ignored the comments and increased our BP.

Meanwhile, in the WhatsApp group of the school Moms, such beautiful pics of such creative outfits started to pour in that I felt really useless! Then I told myself that if I start feeling like this now, I will continue feeling so every time he brings from school a project work or activity for years to come.

On Tuesday morning he wore a blue full sleeves Tee and blue pants and flatly refused to attach the Mayilpeeli thingy till I did some coaxing, shouting and threatening. He then did wear it, but complained that it was poking him on his ears! I got so wild because I couldn’t see anything poking him anywhere. He just pulled it off from the belt and I was livid. Controlled somehow, but he started crying, so I counted till 10 and told myself that it was ok if he just went to school. He wouldn’t let me stick the small mayilpeelis either.

When he was leaving from home he told me to take the Mayilpeeli belt along and that we would wear it from school. Motherly love and affection gushed in on hearing that, and I kissed him and told him sorry for shouting at him earlier. But Amma and I were still not very sure that he would wear it. However when we reached the school, he was more than willing to put it on and I gladly obliged and my little peacock went inside the school happily jumping away! J