#SoCS Sept. 12/2020

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “collar.” Use it as a verb, a noun, or metaphorically. Bonus points for using it in all three ways! Enjoy!

Today’s prompt reminded me of all the shirts and frocks I had stitched for my children. Collars for shirts and kurtas, peter pan collars, sailor collars and so many more types for frocks.  Stitching always interested me. I went to college in Bombay and I was staying with my father’s elder sister. I told her I would like to join a class. A lady in the next building took classes in her home. I remember going there, I think once a week. Those classes were fun.

I stitched shirts for my son. And when my daughter was born, stitching became more fun. Frocks are so much more exciting then shirts 😊. The different types of collars and sleeves and patterns made the whole process so satisfying. I remember loving the design of a frock worn by a dancer in an old Hindi movie. I stitched a frock according to that design but that frock did not have a collar. Those were the days before the mobile phones and digital cameras. I do not have the photos of all the frocks that I stitched.  Now I stitch only for myself, though last year I stitched dresses for my grandchildren. But they were simple shirts and frocks. When I am stitching, I am in a different world. It is difficult to collar me at that time 😊.

I was thinking how to use the word metaphorically, it has been a long time since I have used metaphors and many a time we use them without really thinking about them. I am listening to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens on Audibles. It is a dramatized version. Ebenezer Scrooge with the Christmas spirit is looking at the scene in the house of Bob Cratchit. Bob is his clerk and Ebenezer has underpaid and overworked him. In fact, he has placed a collar on Bob and Bob has no choice, he has to live with it. He is poor and has a large family. In spite of this Bob and his family raised a toast to Ebenezer on Christmas eve. I have yet to listen to rest of the story. I have read it long back but it is a nice experience to listen to stories. I enjoy Stream of consciousness because it shows me how my thoughts move from one topic to another😊. In fact, it is difficult to collar thoughts, the mind has its own rules.

By Lakshmi Bhat

I am a person who believes there is not enough darkness in the world to extinguish the light of a small candle. We live in a small place in South India. I love reading, blogging, stitching, traveling, photography, listening to people and many other things which make life so very nice and interesting. Blogging is a fun experience, it has brought me into contact with people in different parts of the world and it is good to read about their everyday life. In spite of the differences there is a sameness which is fascinating. I have learnt and am learning something everyday. I have learnt to write haikus. I enjoy combining the thought and the number of syllables. I have always read books and I was happy to write short fiction. I had thought I would not be able to do so. Stream of Consciousness and photo challenges are fun too. Yes, there is so much in life that is sad and that hurts us. Many a time I wonder why life is so unfair to so many. We all have problems in life but the problems of many seems unbearable. This makes me feel so helpless. It is not possible to help everyone but we can do our bit, we can do something to help some in whatever way we can. Due to the pandemic I could not go to the Home for the mentally challenged for two years. I had been going there since 2011. I have started going again. I was happy that some members remembered me :) All of them are an important part of my life. There have been many challenges in life and we have faced them with a positive approach. Our grandson and granddaughter have made our lives richer.

21 comments

  1. Your sentence “It is difficult to collar me at that time” is a lovely use of the word. It can be used as a noun as well in that sense. In old detective books and films they used to say “That’s a good collar” to a colleague who had arrested a master criminal who usually eluded the police. I think it came from the fact that, very often, a policeman would hold the arrested man, from behind, by his collar.
    There are lots of people here in England who do not speak English as well as you and many other Indians do. They lack a wide vocabulary, the product, sadly, of the fact that they hardly ever read a book.

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    1. The verbification of nouns is a fun game. During the 2012 London Olympics, TV commentators spoke of teams “medalling”. Office workers synchronising their business diaries are said to be “diarising”.

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      1. Yes, I follow everything you do. I read it enthusiastically, and one day I will pluck up the courage to join in, even on a Monday. The word COLLAR brought back memories of fashion failures, both in shirts and sweaters. Back in the 1970s, “penny round” collars were “all the rage” for fashionable men. I love those kind of memoir prompts.

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    3. You said it Lakshmi. I too enjoy stitching, learnt from my mother. She was good at stitching, painting , knitting and embroidery.
      Your ability put thoughts into words is superb👍

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  6. When my daughter was little and we had very little money I embroidered designs on the front of overalls that I had worn as a child. I also made her little rompers, learning to attach the snaps that made diapering easy. My biggest accomplishment was sewing her prom dress from a Vogue pattern she picked out. It had three layers and a boned bodice. It took me the better part of a week, but it made me very proud to see her in it.

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