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The ties that bind

Taking a fancy for anything is the forte and primary occupation of all kids, and I laid stake at them very often. Being a town segregated from the fury of city life, Jamshedpur didn’t have much to lure kids with, but the wandering mind can latch on to anything.

Once, the stuff that my dreams were made of was the humble tie. Being an adult with a volatile memory, I don’t quite remember what I found so enticing in them, but I do recall that all I wanted then was a tie.

L.G Stores stocked fancy items to satiate the desires that would fire kids’ imaginations from time to time. It was, as a matter of fact, the favorite haunt of anyone with a fling. Notorious though it was for being overpriced, people nevertheless swarmed around it for being better endowed than any other store in Kharangajhar.

Dad took me there. The shop owner, lunging at the opportunity before my folly ebbed,  wasted no time in letting my eyes feast on the ties of various colors laid in front of my discerning self.  Choosing was hard, but I finally settled for brown. Dad mildly made his preference for navy-blue known, but I brushed aside the suggestion. Dad didn’t persist and that’s how I became the proud owner of my very first tie - a brown one with an elastic that went under the shirt collar for east fastening.

I understood years later why Dad preferred the navy-blue – it would match my school (Gulmohur High) uniform. Brown was for another neighboring school. I wonder if I ever wore the tie.

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