We desis always stand out, no matter where we are. It’s not about how we all look like, its more about the way we live and all those things that make us. You can be living in the old parts of Delhi or in rural America but you can bet dollars to dosas you will have these items in your household. Here are 5 things that every desi house has with them at all times:
Fluffy blankets with weird looking designs
Who else had the giant poofy blanket with those deep red floral patterns or with the tigers on them? They were probably there before you were and our moms took special care in folding and putting them away only to take them out for winters.
And you had to be extra careful not to spill anything over them or trod over them with your dirty socks. If you did, you got what you deserved. And there was always that special blanket that hadn’t even seen the light of day because it was reserved for guests only, so you and your siblings didn’t have authorized access to it.
Sewing supplies in a box of biscuits
If you opened the book of World’s Oldest Tricks, you’re definitely going to see the one of sewing supplies in the tin of butter cookies. A little bit of our innocence died the day we would get our hands on these cookie tins and gleefully open it only to find them replaced with Nani’s threads and needles. Sed lyf for sure.
And it wasn’t like it happened to a couple of kids in Pakistan somewhere. No, somehow the desi hive mind decided to teach kids about deception through butter cookies for years and years. Well played, moms.
Crockery with similar designs
Just Google fancy dinner plates and you’ll be swimming in a sea of the most amazing dinner plate designs ever made. And as you scroll past them, you’re going to come across this white plate with the branch of (unnaturally somehow) pears and grapes together.
For those who aren’t aware this’ll seem as some cute retro plate design but for us desis: this is our national plate.
Whether you lived in Mumbai or Dubai or London or anywhere else, if you grew up in a desi house your family had this dinner plate set. It was always there, kept high up in the crockery cupboard and only taken out when it was a big fancy dinner with all the guests coming. And those of you who accidentally broke those plates, it was as if you broke your mom’s heart with that plate and subsequently the family’s honor.
The TV remote covered in a plastic
Plastic. The transparent coverall that guards every desi’s house till the end of time. New sofa set. Covered in plastic. New car. Covered in plastic. New Xbox. Covered in plastic. So, no surprise that the TV remote would also be packed in a shiny plastic cover the moment it arrives home.
And as long as it’s the member of the household, it stays covered in plastic until it breaks down. And you’d think we’d open the cover to change the batteries inside. No, desis don’t do that. We slap the hell out of it. Couple of sharp smacks to the back( the smacks are perfectly practised, of course) and it works just fine. Why waste money?
Overused toothpaste
So, the tube of toothpaste comes. You get excited that you don’t have to get another one for 4 months. Lol, you sweet summer child.
That’s not how desis work. We go wild. We slather our toothbrushes with the thick gobs of toothpaste thinking this will go on forever and happily brush away every morning. Until the day it hits us, it’s the end of the month, you’re broke and you’ve got just enough to make it last the week.
Fear not, our survival desiness kicks in. We ration it out like its war times, squeezing out the last smidget of it in the tube and brush extra hard. A little extra Listerine and you’re good. There’s always a way in the desi life.
