Fashion and women

The Daily Mail rarely goes without atleast 4 pages (either together or scattered) of pictures about clothing and accessories.  Most of these are for women.  It is quite surprising that it does a detailed analysis of which royal wore what, when and how much did it cost.  It would then have whole pages of photos of the past members of the royal family wearing the same or similar dress or using similar handbags or wearing the similar ear-rings.  From dresses, to footwear, to rings, ear-rings, hand bags, tiaras, hats ... gosh, what not!

However, all of this and in other media outlets too, there is mostly 98% of it all directed to the female gender.  There is hardly anything about men's clothing.  In that sense, men's clothing range begins with the t-shirt and ends with a suit.  That's it.  Nothing more than that.  There is hardly anything spoken or printed about men's clothing anywhere at all.  Thanks to that!

Know not if it the women's craze for such fancy accessories and garments or media's frenzy feeding the minds of the female gender.  Whatever be the case, the male gender have something they don't mind not being burdened with - more than the suit or shirt!

But here's an enlightened view from the other side...

Torn jeans

Oh, the number of young people I came across today wearing torn jeans!! Whew!  Not only the number of them, but the literally ragged state of the pants!  I'd seen some students at Royal Holloway and it was fine. But in London, the number of them was way too many to count.

If only Mummy were to see this fashion statement, she'd have never ever got rid of my old jeans.  They way by far, usable for another generation - even after my use!  The jeans that I saw today were so 'torn' that Mummy would think twice to use as a mopping cloth or a doormat!  Such was their state!

Image is from the net!
I would never dare click a photo of any stranger, leave alone in such an attire!

Short skirts?

It has been brought to my notice that in Kerala, a bishop, exhorting his faithful to a spiritual life, through his pastoral newsletter recommended (among others) that girls should not wear short dresses to Church.  While certainly he has the good of his people and their spiritual growth at heart, he is perhaps focussing on some non-essentials.

That youngsters come to Church is itself a great sign of the growing faith.  To state that one should be dressed neatly and look dignified is one thing.  But the length of one's dress need not always be the standard measurement of one's character or spirituality.

While I do agree that many of the traditional practices have been a great help in building the Church and spreading the faith, I also believe that they need not be practiced merely because 'it has been so'. Rather those practices need to be explained in terms of contemporary context and made meaningful for today.

Moreover, would like to really know, whose problem is it if girls come with short skirts?  Of the girls themselves? Of boys? Of elders? Or of the parish priest himself?  I'm sure it is not of the girls themselves.  Well then, whose-so-ever else is the problem, they need to ask themselves what exactly is their problem?  The newsletter would do good to balance its statement on skirts with this issue too.  

Watching...

Coming early to the University and sitting by the library window for study, I look out often - especially when tired of reading - to see the different groups of youngsters pass by.  Here are some recurrent things that I observed:

• No one bothers about anothers' clothing!  There are all sorts of clothing worn by students on the campus.  Of course, all protect themselves from the cold. However, the style is as varied as it could ever be.  There are t-shirts (new, long, old, torn, with text...), bermudas, jeans (some even torn, patched, mixed colours), burquas, coats (of varied lengths), caps, shoes of all colours with socks - without socks,... all sorts of things.   Mummy and Thathi should be brought here to see how useless their lectures to me about "decent" clothes were!  There is hardly anyone wearing a shirt, though.  
• Girls smoke much much more than boys... that's for certain!  The rough ratio could be 5:1.
• Students carry their food and drink and help themselves to it, anytime... not only while chatting with friends but in the library, in the classroom too!  However no one litters the place. There are sufficient bins around - each for a particular type of material.

Looking at some of the "weird" types I wonder why at all should they colour their hair pink or red? There are those who go around with such torn jeans that Mummy would not even use for wiping the floor!  Then those hairstyles, mostly unkempt. I guess it is a call to be noticed, to stand out. And they surely do!

Dressing and character

Before taking off from Hyderabad, Benny accompanied me and helped me select and purchase shoes for my stay in London.  It was a difficult adventure, first of all given the fact that I was trying on shoes after 23 years!  Secondly the price of each one was so exorbitant that I felt I was buying some jewellery and not mere footwear! Anyway, thanks to Benny's guidance I ended up buying three pairs of shoes.

While at the airports (Hyderabad and Mumbai) I had enough time to squander and so took liesure walks up and down the ails, watching people. (Did not like to walk around the shopping areas, felt a bit of nausea at the glitter and futility of products on display.) One of the things that I was looking at was the footwear worn by people.  Was trying to see if their footwear (and to a certain extent their dress too) was proportional to their character.  Not that I have some x-ray vision to scan and guage their character... but all the same.  One thing too evident was that those who most flaunted their goods, were the most shallow by way of character.  Others around did not exist for this sort of people at all.

Most were lost in their own world of cell phones.  There was a certain guy who had come in a very very simple attire. He wore the same rubber slippers I normally use (at the airport I was wearing sandals!).  From his movements and looks, I gathered he was not a frequent flyer, or could have been flying one of his first times.  While he was very conscious of not getting in the way of others or drawing attention to himself, on two occasions I saw him reach out to others instinctively: once when a child was about to stumble and on another occasion when a senior man in the wheel-chair was struggling to stand up.  There were others around the child and the elderly person, but were not much moved - they did not move at all!  But this gentleman was concerned and attempted to help.  Now if his footwear were the the criteria of his character, he'd be rated the lowest; but if one were to grade him by his actions, he'd be most noble among all those present there.  

Sunday best

I heard and came to know the meaning of the phrase 'put on your Sunday best' only after joining the Seminary. Not that I was alien to the practice of it - Mummy saw to it! Now here in the Seminary, we have a dress code for all solemnities and for ministry: the kurta and dark pants.  So frankly speaking, that turns out to be our 'Sunday best'. Certainly, not everyone, accepts it to be anywhere reflecting either Sunday or best!

Does that mean the Brothers don't get to wear their 'Sunday best'?  Heck no!  They wear it when they go out to write their BA exams.  Very many of them pull out new clothes - I mean, brand new clothes - just for this one time.  One does not get to see them either before or after the exams!  So perhaps, one can very well rephrase that text to 'Exam best' in our context here.

However, it is good to note, that more than before very many are taking a liking for the kurta. It is nice to see the development.