January 25, 2013
Krista is more than ten months now and already people have started asking me, “When are you going to get her ears pierced?” I am like ‘what?’ and then quickly come to my senses replying, “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that, yet” (which is true).
In my Country where I hail from originally, ear piercing is a norm, custom and tradition if you have a baby girl. For Hindu religion, the day of ear piercing is a ritual where the whole family (including Parents, Grand parents and innumerable Uncles and Aunts) would accompany the ‘baby girl’ to get her ‘poor’ears ( just my opinion, no offense to any one) pierced. The consequent wailing and crying from the little one while engaged in this act is received as ‘music to their ears’. It is believed that when she get her ears pierced, she falls in line for the first time to claim her girl/womanhood. I am a catholic by birth and I did not face this fate when I got my ears pierced. But I still cried with the pain which only lasted for few days. My Mom fussed around me and couldn’t wait to try on the ear rings that she bought for me and also the gifted gold ones from our relatives. The memory still brings smile to my face.
After I got used to the’ hole’ in my ears, I couldn’t wait to wear different styles and shapes of ear rings, be it silver, gold or just designer brands. My fancy for ear rings continued well into adulthood and by then I owned a huge collection of my favorite ear rings! After taking into studies seriously and in my frantic attempts to clear University and to land a job, I think I left off my fascination for ear rings some where. There came a time when the only jewelry that you would find on me was my wrist watch. The most cherished ear rings I owned was voluntarily given away to all the young cousins and I felt like a great hearted person!
After getting married and coming here to live in Canada, situation did not change. Here, I was more accustomed to taking my chain, bangles, rings and ear rings off while I am home and putting only the chain (which is called ‘Taali’ and it is a symbol of a married woman) when I go out. Obviously, ear rings did no longer held a place for me in the current life and it had to settle down for a back seat ride. I never realized how much I neglected them until now, when some one asked me recently about getting Krista’s ears done. My mind took a quick rewind to these years back and I marveled at the fact that how much I and my priorities have changed!
But just because I have changed doesn’t mean that I will strip my daughter off her roots and tradition. So this is what I have decided. I will wait until she is a bit older so that she could tell me if it is okay for her to get the ‘holes’ in her ears or not. I know that they do painless ear piercing these days and it won’t even take a full minute. If she wants it, I am all for it. On the other hand, if she is not fascinated by this prospect, we will just skip this, nice and easy. No pressure on anybody. With the ear rings or without it, Krista is beautiful and perfect.
Ear holing (sorry, I just coined that word) is just a cosmetic enhancement. Besides, one should also think about the time when one looses interest in dangling rings on their ears and leave the hole empty and wide for the whole world to see (like mine is shown off, now).
…Any thoughts on what your approach would be if you were in my position?
Leave a Reply