2003 / august / 18
I am what I wear
Feeling too lazy to cook, I grabbed my last euros and set out to the snack-shack on the waterfront. Waiting for my plain chips and baja, one of the guys who runs it asks me where I bought my t-shirt. It's a tee I bought in Spain a while ago. It takes a moment before I connect that they are two brothers from India, and that my SPF-shirt has some hindi text on it. Above a line that looks to my lay eyes like thai.
Years ago, on a sunny morning, I was leisurely making my way to the Westermarkt
along the prinsengracht canal. No clouds in sight, too warm for a coat, happy,
whistling gently to myself. Three japanese women
come from the other side, young tourists in their early twenties, chattering
and giggling at high speed. And suddenly they fall dead silent.
On seeing me. Well, my t-shirt. Bought in
a small gallery in the Jordaan, nice design, a hand-printed collage of found footage.
I realize it's got some japanese on it. It takes me a
few moments to realize that I would actually like to know what it says, as
I'm walking around with it. Hell, what is it? Was this piece of the design
taken from a poster advertising the Issuikai? A bukkake-party?
Or does it just pronounce, "gajin and proud of it"? Too late, I've passed them now. But the shirt
never felt the same since. I walked in the gallery later, and asked the artist
if she knew what it meant. She didn't, either.
Back to my chips. "Hey guys, you can read hindi, right? I would really like
to know what it says." And I told them the story of the japanese shirt.
"No worries, mate, I think I know what it says. Well, I think at least my
brother knows."
(fetches brother from the deep frier)
"It's a medicine, isn't it?"
He says. "Yes, yes, a medicine. For the head!" (rubs head)
"Good for the head!" (makes circling movements with his thumb on his forhead).
"Good medicine!" "And it's called daiga boum!" "Yes, Taiga boom!"
I chime in, "Tiger balm?" We are a happy choir now.
"Yes, yes! Tiger balm! Good for the head! Good for the head!"
They get a nice tip, and I'm all grins as I walk back to my house. It's nice to know what it says on a t-shirt. Just one question nagging me now though. Rubbing tiger balm on your forehead when you've got a headache?
