Following my thoughts
The last time I was in Chennai airport (2nd April), while standing in the queue to ‘check in’, I noticed a lady - of middle age - a few places away in front of me. She looked like an Indian settled in Fiji or West Indies. Though I say this as if I can tell, I really don’t know. What I mean is that she looked more a migrant than a full blown Indian.
She was dressed very casually in a flared long skirt and a shirt like top. I can tell it was an eight part skirt, as all the joints with frayed edges were visible. It looked like she was wearing the skirt inside out.
My first impulse was to tell the lady. Luckily she was a few paces away. I started thinking.
Why should I tell her? What would be achieved by telling the lady she is wearing her skirt inside out? What is wrong if she is wearing it that way? If the lady is not aware of it would my telling her embarrass her? Not being able to do anything about it right away would it create some kind of agitation in her mind?
What if she knows and she has been hoping nobody would notice it? Am I the only one who has noticed it? What if the skirt is purposely made that way as a fashion statement? Would she have some specific reason for wearing it inside out?
Lost in all these thoughts I didn’t even notice the lady after that.
Two days later I remembered something that happened about 4 months ago.
I was in Singapore with my sister Kala. We went out, travelling by bus and train, did some errands, had our lunch in a very good joint and a cup of coffee at a special coffee place. When we came home my sister commented that my kurta was inside out. I took it so casually and just changed it to the right way around. So many other people could have noticed it, but it didn’t bother me at all.
Thinking back at the entire episode, I am amazed at my train of thoughts and that I am aware of it all.
You know actually some t-shirts and pants are deliberately stitched like that, actually it is very much vogue these days, even I have 2/3 like that which Janardhan had bought from the US.
ReplyDeleteBut once in one of our weddings in Madras, I noticed a African girl had worn a saree with the matching blouse, only thing was she was wearing the front button blouse as back button, with all those pleats looking odd. I wanted to tell her, and I am sure she would not have minded, but i don't know what made me keep quiet.
I am coming to your blogs after a long time, it feels so good to do so.