Putting on the glitz

I am a firm believer in bling. The bigger the better, but with a certain taste attached. And while I would never advocate the kitchen-sink look, I do appreciate and occasionally indulge in a certain amount of the shiny stuff, when time and circumstance allows. And I do like a bit of OTT myself, at least once in a while, with a piece or two making that special statement that cannot but prove that you have ‘it’, whatever that ‘it’ may be. But there are rules to any bling, large or small, which must be followed; unless, of course, you want to look like the faux jewellery counter at the corner bania shop, with absolutely no connection to anything spelled D-i-o-r or even j-o-o-l-r-y.

I was at the mall today looking for cat food and various other sundries when the friend who had come with me got distracted and wandered off. Keeping one eye firmly on her movements, I watched people with the other, perhaps looking rather strange, but undaunted by the even stranger sideways glances I was getting from the spotty young man who had been trying to sell me some kind of smelly stuff – or stuff to make me smell of something apart from clean female and baby powder, I am not sure. In the waiting boredom was my companion, so I drifted a little left, peering at the cases of jewellery presumably tastefully assembled to show off a lot of nicely illuminated shine.

There were bracelets and bangles and rings and necklaces and earrings and other bits and bobs that seemed to be of mysterious function that was beyond my comprehension. And there were a few women, accompanied by patently bored men, who stood there trying things on, surfing, as it were, through the display and, occasionally, examining the results in the too-small mirror provided for that purpose. At some stage, one lady put on a ‘full set’, which consisted of a series of very shiny chains cascading down into her ample cleavage, with a pair of earrings that started at the tops of her ears and draped down into her neck. And a pretty young girl with a small silver ring in her nose draped a long and baubled necklace around her slim waist, adding to her charms considerably, much to the appreciation of four young men at a nearby counter who had become somewhat distracted by the sight.

I have been bling watching for a while now, fascinated by the range of faux jewels available and the panache with which they are worn. Television soaps – that I was riveted by a few months ago; the charm has worn off now – are perhaps the biggest consumers of ‘paste’, as it was once called, with everyone from the servants to the memsahibs decorated in swathes of the stuff. I was even more ensnared by the fact, reported in some gossip magazine, that a lot of the jewellery used by the saas-bahu types was made of – hold your breath – paper! While I figure that one out, I will go ogle some more of the glitter that is available in the store down the road from home…