I Got, I Got, I Got

*note the parallelism to a previous post*

"Let's start from the very beginning..."

I meant to wake up at 6 o'clock so I could study because I knew I wouldn't be studying for the rest of the day. But my bloody alarm clock didn't go off and I got up 9 instead. So, a pretty normal start to the day. Then had to go for prayers in my grandmother's house (I was bored out of my mind for three solid hours) where I found out that my uncle was planning a wedding ceremony-on SUNDAY!! Its just a small do, family only but why all the "hush hush" is beyond me. He got married (well, registered anyway) last year. And is now having a religious ceremony in 2 DAYS!! I have NOTHING to wear! haha..like I'm going to be the person people are looking at.

But my mum, the only real shopper in the whole extended family (that's quite sad isn't it?) decided to take all us cousins (well, the girls anyway) to get outfits for the ceremony. So we went to Jalan Gasing, spent almost 2 hours and came away with 2 outfits. Suffice to say, picky ole me didn't find anything. I want a lengga!! I only have one and that's like 5 years old. By the way, for all ye non-indians, a lengga is a two-piece outfit comprising a long flowy skirt and a fitting, heavily embroidered top. That's the best I can describe it. So, we're going to Brickfields tomorrow to continue where we left off. Maybe, just maybe I'll find something, or more like it'll find me. I would rub my hands in glee, but I'm starting to worry about how my revision is going to fit into all of this.

..But the worry passes fairly quickly and we're back to more shopping. Followed Wen Ni to the opening of Forever 21 in 1U. First of all, I was actually on time this time around. Perhaps I haven't inherited the tardiness streak that seems to infect all Malaysians (Punctuality is an impossibility in the Malaysian community). Now the store....gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. And the clothes...*swoon*. I just started grabbing things off the racks left and right. I'm normally never like this. Perhaps it was the mood and infectious enthusiasm of the mass of people there.Or perhaps Wen's shopaholicness rubbed off on me. If it did, she might want some of it back coz I bought more stuff then she did! *laughs gleefully*

I am a spendthrift. Prices don't really register in my head. 90 or 19 ringgit if I like it, I want it and if there's no one there to stop me, I will get it. So for lack of a warden, I got 2 90 ringgit tops and a necklace costing 35 bucks (which in retrospect is pretty steep). Well, after the initial high of buying something wore off, the guilt set in. "Perhaps I overdid it. What if I don't like them when I get home?" Typical me.

Well I got home and tried on both tops and LUV 'em both! And mum said they were nice too, though this was after I had given her enough time to adjust to the fact that I blew 200 bucks in 1 go, in 1 store!! You know, my mum didn't complain or scold as much as I thought she would. It was my big mouth of a sister who tried to stoke the fire with her two-pronged tongue. Well, Haha! because it didn't work. Mum's fast asleep (which I take to mean that the worst is over), my new purchases are lying ready and waiting to be worn in my cupboard and I end this post with an immense sense of satisfaction, both from shopping and from writing this lengthy post, as well as a gnawing in my stomach. (Daddy's been baking bread again and the smell of the bread is both tantalising and torturous.) Yum yum!

Tradition

It is the glue that binds a society together. It is the one solid link we have with our past, our history. It is the voice that stays our hand when passion overwhelms reason, the voice of our forebearers admonishing the slightest deviation from what is considered acceptable.
It is the walls that enclose us in a coccoon of comfort and familiarity. Warm, cosy and comforting, like a mother's lap. A mother rocking her child, protecting him from the harshness of the outside world.

But look again. Don't you see the towers and turrets? The cold hard gray stone, impenetrable, both from without and within? Walls so tall the only thing let in is the sunlight. A vast expanse of rock and concrete that limits our horizons and binds our potential.

It is tradition that directs an individual into the role he must play. Tradition that forces a person into the box the shape of which he must take. Tradition that dictates the who, when, where and how of love and marriage; enslaving men and women to the roles they were born to play.

True, it stands to protect our society and the human race. But the wall we have built for our defence has become a hindrance to our development. In cowering behind this wall for fear of the bitter lashings of a cruel sea, we idle in ignorance of a glorious sunset beyond the reach of even the most fiersome wave.

So it is now left to you-
Tradition- a talisman for your protection or a chain for your enslavement?