Bangles .....

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Bangles in India are worn traditionally by married women ..... it is a sign of matrimony among the married women ...traditionally speaking 

however ….one can see bangles adorning the hands of the unmarried, married , young and old alike .... bangles tend to keep the nerves of the hands functioning properly as the keep rubbing the wrists when women move their hands be it for work or tying their tresses or anything else ..

my affair with bangles, specially glass bangles.... started when I was 4 years old ....on a trip to Kerala ...my maternal uncle's wife bought bangles for her daughter and me ....my cousin and I used to have long conversations about our Precious glass bangles ....when I went to my paternal granny's place ...her youngest son and my uncle broke All my bangles ....saying only fisherwomen wore glass bangles ....I howled the roof down and went and told everyone who would listen ...how my paternal uncle Babu chachan broke my bangles ....and nicked my hand too ...he was the lone alcoholic in the family and was used to throwing wild tantrums...everyone of my aunts ticked him off for troubling little me ....they told him that as long as her parents don't object ...you stop meddling and making the child howl sooo loudly ...LOL 

my granny yelled at him and asked the househelp to buy me a dozen ...I told her ...I wanted just as many as I had earlier ....both hands should be full ...she very kindly obliged and I got 24 glass bangles which I flaunted to everyone including the uncle who would threaten to break them again...they would not be such an attraction one back in Pune as they were an impediment to tree climbing ....my favourite way to spend my time .... climbing the guava trees in the backyard and via the trees climbing the high roof ...

every summer going to Kerala and buying bangles and wearing them and fighting about them was a ritual ...once back to Pune ...there was no way I could wear any fancy stuff or bangles to school which had strict policies about uniform ..the only allowance in school was small studs as earrings and that too ...no fancy gold or diamond studded earrings

once I reached college I would buy all kinds of glass bangles from the roadside stalls near my bus stop ...I had very few traditional indian clothes ....and for each of those dresses I had matching glass bangles ...I had quite a collection by the time I finished college ...

work was in a college and we had a dress code of the Sari for college ....I would buy minimum 12 bangles to match each saree ..however I wore only 6 or so when going to college as it was a headache when drawing graphs and diagrams ....

then came marriage and gold bangles ....wore for a bit ...in assam and then we were transferred to Annamalais ....and I went back to wearing saris and glass bangles ...

in the snaps above there is one snap with two guys ...one is Ajit and the other is Sunil

Ajit (in checked clothes) was the gardener ...i trained him to be the cook and he took to it very well ...since he had finished 12grade ...he could talk to relatives in English and keep notes for us ...when we were away for events ...
Very honest and helpfull ... when we left he was going to shift to Tirupur with family to work in the hoisery market
Sunil was from the plains i.e Pollachi and he was the gardener, he also did shopping for me and both of them helped me buy glass bangles ...spl for parties ..i would give them the blouse to match the colour and a bangle of my size ....i collected quite a bit of glass bangles in this estate at Sheikalmudi ... LOL

In 1999 December we left Annamalais and I stopped buying glass bangles in Assam till I was back in 2004 ....serious buying ofbangles started when I was back to teaching in a college and wearing saris ....I used to keep buying bangles on every trip to the coastal regions of India and every picnic place we went to ...

Finally in 2012 I stopped buying glass bangles as they were not available in Bahrain ...there I bought chuncky bracelets of the junk jewellery kind ...

I was back to India in 2013 and I went back to buying glass bangles and it is Only in 2015 on a trip to Pondicherry that I stopped buying stuff I would not use ....I gave away many bangles and have curbed my glass bangles buying ways totally ....as of now ...

they are Translucent circles that tinkle and chime when I work ... they are a huge fascination for me and I love more than gold bangles any Day ...

from 2014 I have started buying silver bangles ....they too are a fascinating world altogether different in nature and type ....Jaipur is one place where one can find a huge variety and beautifull designs at half the price from what I pay in my city Pune ...

PS : Bangles also brings to mind a Band ...whose music I love very much ....manic Monday and walk like an Egyptian ...  :) :)