You know, adulthood hits people differently. It can be as big as taking a huge loan to buy a luxurious 4 BHK, or as small as buying your own groceries from a physical store instead of Blinkit.
Do you realise how OTT and e-commerce platforms have suddenly become verbs? “Let’s Amazon it.” “Oh, you forgot a toothbrush? Let me Blinkit it for you.” “Did you Google the maps before you left home?” These are now a part of our everyday communication. LOL, I am digressing! :-P
Anyway, coming back to what I was discussing… adulthood.
This struck me yesterday while I was chit-chatting with my in-laws. I have a habit of fidgeting with things, and I happened to be rolling my specs around and rotating the temples. Mom stopped me and said, “It will break, don’t do that.”
I proudly told her, “Nothing is going to happen. Do you know how old these IDEE specs are? I bought them in 2010. They have survived my brutal treatment for the last 16 years.” And then we moved on to discussing something else.
Later, in the wee hours of the night, while looking for my specs to watch TV, I suddenly remembered how Papa had taken me to one of the most famous optical stores in Panipat, Beauty Opticians, to help me buy a pair of glasses without nose pads because the ones on my old specs used to dig into my nose and hurt a lot.
Even though I was earning by then, there is a certain joy in spending your parents’ money that you can see reflected in their eyes, and I couldn’t take that away from Papa. Just kidding. Parents simply take care of you without even being asked.
A little background on Papa: while he is an incredibly patient person, he is a very impatient shopper. He is the kind of person who would never sift through hundreds of options. If he likes the first thing he sees, he buys it. For my wedding trousseau, he made me buy 20 suits from one shop in 2 hours (can you believe that?) For those who cannot relate with this - pls ask your wife, girl friend, mom or sister. You would know the grief (still)!
And yet, in a store full of hundreds of frames, he patiently made me try on countless pairs.
Papa made sure I bought the best frame within budget. Heck, my otherwise conventional dad even let me buy one with red temples - lightweight and pretty stylish for that time. An IDEE frame for ₹1,800, with lenses costing extra. Even then, he didn’t haggle. He got me the best anti-glare lenses, and the entire pair came to around ₹3,500.
It became one of my most prized possessions because I had never owned anything like it before. I thought it was incredibly chic to have dual-shaded specs for everyday office wear.
Suddenly, an under confident , low-key office-goer became Andy from The Devil Wears Prada after Nigel gifted her all those fabulous clothes and I couldn’t have been more ecstatic.
After some time, the red temples chipped a little, so I got blue ones instead. And they are still with me, 16 years later.
Today, I own frames from Gucci, Bvlgari, Sam & Marshall, and Lenskart. But the one frame that has remained constant is my IDEE pair, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Whenever my prescription changed, those were always the first frames to get new lenses.
I sleep in them. I leave them by my bedside. Sometimes they end up under my pillow. They have travelled with me through hundreds of late-night reading sessions and countless chapters of life.
And I will always go back to my IDEE specs because they were never just a pair of glasses.
They are a reminder that some things stay precious not because of what they cost, but because of who bought them for you. ❤️.
Also.., adulthood is not always about taking loans, promotions, or buying expensive things. Sometimes it’s about looking at an old pair of specs and suddenly seeing your parents in them.
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