HALLI CHUDDIS -I

It was a brilliant Saturday afternoon. We had just finished off with breakfast at Koshys...
“I want Chaddis… I want Chaddis… I want Chaddis”, ranted an excited friend
“OK here we go… ”, I was equally excited…
We were about to embark upon a search for the Halli Chaddis.Well I guess il give a briefing on the Halli Chaddis that im talking about…
These are knee length shorts which come in only one colour.Blue-gren-white stripes… You wouldn’t miss it I you were to travel to a village and meet an oldie chewing on pan herding his flock and displaying his tri-coloured ware from under his white lungi… (People... stop getting ideas…)

Well after having embarrassed a Levis sales man the last time around, we decided to hit Majestic this time… We get into an auto
“Boss… Majestic…”
And we were already on our way…
When we reached Majestic, we got off, paid the guy and started looking for shops that may be selling halli chaddis…
We went from shop to shop…
“Bhai saab aap ke paas chaddis hai kya…”
Invariably the guy gave us a very confused look…
“Kya... haan boss… halli chaddis… ”
“What is that??”
“Er… Chaddis that u find village guys wear under the lungis”
“Er yes the ones that have green-blue-white stripes…”
“Nahin boss… we don have such chaddis…”

This went on for about an hour… every shopkeeper was initially puzzled, then strangely angered (wonder why) ad the relieved to see us leave…

“Man!! This is more difficult than I thought it would be…”
“I know...”
“I have an idea”
“Now what??”
“We will get it stitched”
The idea seemed to have a startling effect on my friend.. She jumped up and her eyes were gleaming like ive never seen before.
“Yes we will do that”, she said and we started looking around for some shady looking shop…
Instead we saw the Bombay Dyeing Showroom...
“Hello Sir what can I do for you”
“Er... We need trouser material”
“Please have a look around sir.”
With his he started pulling down all the trouser materials that he had…
“Sir… we are looking for stripes”, she said with a rather sober tone.
“Ah… we have pin stripes as well…”
He started showing her pin stripes in hazzaar shades of brown and black.
While they were arguing about shades and stripes, I decided to have a look at the shirting material…
There it was… blue-green-white parallel stripes… that too not evenly spaced.My eyes lit up…
“Found it”, I screamed,“show me that piece…”
The old man was a little puzzled but he pulled down the shirt piece nonetheless…
Her eyes were gleaming with enthusiasm now…
“That one only … That one only...” she screamed…
Everyone seemed to be looking at us while the old ma was now beginning to get nervous…
“Shall I show u pin stripes to match with that shirt sir?”, he asked in a vague tone..
“NO we found the trouser material”, she answered
“Maam, but that is a shirt piece..”
“That’s ok we want to make a trouser out of that..”, I said with a smile on my face..
The poor old guy was bloody scandalized by now… He dint dare to say anything else.

“ER… well how much of it do you need sir??”
She immediately interrupted,”How much is eneded to make chaddis for him?” ad pointed straight at me…
For the first time I was beginnig to feel the heat now as the old man surveyed me with a smile and said,”I think one meter should be enough”.

While he was packing the material, she said something that left me in splits
“Do you have naadas as well???”
The old man was red now… Very Politely he said ,” No sir… we dont have naadas”.
With this we walked out of the shop with triumphant smiles…
“HALLI CHADDIS are here to stay!!!!”