(The continuing saga of the Pavement Dwellers.)
....Anyway, we ate well today; perhaps too well (more than
300Rs!).

Shanti, Mumtaz, Vela and Nagamma all went to one Chettinadu hotel that serves junk like brain
fry and liver fry. I told them it was good to order fish,
which they all did,but unknown to me Shanti went ahead and
ordered brain and liver (!).
Vela, Mumtaz and Nagamma all had rice meals with fish fry.
Prabhu got rice meal for himself and parcel for
grandmother. Then Mumtaz duly returned to school at 1pm, and the rest all went for school dresses.

I make a point of keeping track of all the money, and later
when they wanted to buy shoes, I pointed out that we were
nearly OUT of money because they had spent so much already
on food, flowers, etc. Trying to establish the idea of a
'budget' (ha ha).

Shanti has rematerialized and says she,too, will
go to school if only she has a school dress. (Mtz. also
asked for a 2nd school dress, which I so far have
declined.)

We walked to Pycrofts Road to buy school dresses. As it turned
out ready-made school dresses,already stitched, were not
good enough for them (very bad stitching, madam, very bad,
they said). So we had to get cut-piece fabric from one
store - 650 RS for 2 sets - and take it to the tailor, who charges 400 to stitch 2 sets.

Then we went to buy shoes. Of course Shanti wanted the most
ridiculous shoes, silver glitter sandals. I said 'no' and
made them buy practical black sandals which they probably
hate. Vela started in about how she too wanted sandals. I
said if she would go to school, we would buy her all these
things, or if she would work, but she cannot just go
'rounding' all day. She said, I am working for you
helping; I said, yes, and for this we are feeding you.

The 2 girls also are old enough to require some kind of bra
or undershirt now as their chests are showing, so we got 2
sports-bra type things. 20rs Each.

Total cost:
320 Rs = 2 pairs shoes
400 Rs = tailoring
645 Rs = fabric pieces for 2 school sets
40 Rs = bras
245 Rs= lunch for girls
60 Rs = Prabhu's food
......................
1710 Rs. Not a cheap day....