Fashion, I have come to a sad realization, is something I will never fully comprehend.
My earlier attempts to understand this highly complex logy has left me completely exhausted and utterly devastated, that I have taken up the comparatively bird brained game of chess to alleviate the despair.
The point that bothers me most is the fickleness of the whole thing. A particular style barely gets to make an entrance on stage that you have nine others waiting in the wings for their moment of glory. Fickle. ever so fickle!!
Probable this feeling stems from an incident that caused me much pain and which still haunts me. It was our annual college party . The importance of the day could not be overemphasized . The day when every one got to make a lasting impression on the Junta.
Well, I decided to come out of my hermit existence and my literary world and be a part of the crowd. It was of course at a time when I was naïve enough to think that I could master this seemingly simple game of fashion. I browsed through every style magazine I could lay my ink stained hands on and with the indispensable advice from Raji, our college style guru, I came to the conclusion that bell sleeves and orange colour was the flavor of the season. Elementary aint’t it ?!! I used up my allowance which I had saved for Shakespeare’s Hamlet( Shakespeare, I figured was dead since 1616 and could wait for another two months) to buy an orange bell sleeved shirt with intricate embroidery on the sleeves. I even got a 20 % discount on it which was more that what I could ask for.
On the day of the party , feeling extremely confident, I entered the hall and got a bigger shock than what probably Sushmita Sen got when she won the Miss Universe title. Every being , human and otherwise was dressed in black . Well, with the exception of Mohan , the college peon who turned up in a yellow kurta , but then Mohan was considered to be the worst dressed person in India after Govinda and was of no comfort to me. And yes the sleeves were nowhere near my flag post. They were closely cut into what I later came to know as mega sleeves.
I felt all eyes on me and a couple of them boring my head from behind. I suddenly wished I had Anil Kapoor’s magical watch he wore in Mr. India. I desperately sought out Raji, who looked cool in a black and gray outfit with yes , you guessed it MEGA SLEEVES!!! “Whatever happened to you?” she exclaimed looking at me as though I was Spielberg’s ET. “I thought this is what the world in general is wearing “ I muttered trying to evade those piercing eyes. Hah ! for the simple life of an amoeba!” It was babes, till last week. Don’t you watch Star Plus? Ever since Manish Malhotra expressed his views on bell sleeves and the orange and green colour , they are to be avoided like the pariah. Black is THE COLOR and mega sleeves rock!! Now, if you’ll excuse me , I can’t be seen hanging around an orange flag. I have a reputation to protect”
Well, that was the end of my social life ( not that it was all that great to begin with) for the next six months and it was just not funny being called ‘Rasna Nagpur Orange’ a name that still sticks.
Once bitten, twice shy. Shakespeare has his sweet revenge and I returned back to my world of Keats, Shakespeare and Wordsworth and have tried to stay there since.
And for all you unfortunate ones , trying to get a foothold on this unstable domain of colours and patterns , my only advice is WATCH STAR PLUS…
Copyright (c) Neha Shinde
My earlier attempts to understand this highly complex logy has left me completely exhausted and utterly devastated, that I have taken up the comparatively bird brained game of chess to alleviate the despair.
The point that bothers me most is the fickleness of the whole thing. A particular style barely gets to make an entrance on stage that you have nine others waiting in the wings for their moment of glory. Fickle. ever so fickle!!
Probable this feeling stems from an incident that caused me much pain and which still haunts me. It was our annual college party . The importance of the day could not be overemphasized . The day when every one got to make a lasting impression on the Junta.
Well, I decided to come out of my hermit existence and my literary world and be a part of the crowd. It was of course at a time when I was naïve enough to think that I could master this seemingly simple game of fashion. I browsed through every style magazine I could lay my ink stained hands on and with the indispensable advice from Raji, our college style guru, I came to the conclusion that bell sleeves and orange colour was the flavor of the season. Elementary aint’t it ?!! I used up my allowance which I had saved for Shakespeare’s Hamlet( Shakespeare, I figured was dead since 1616 and could wait for another two months) to buy an orange bell sleeved shirt with intricate embroidery on the sleeves. I even got a 20 % discount on it which was more that what I could ask for.
On the day of the party , feeling extremely confident, I entered the hall and got a bigger shock than what probably Sushmita Sen got when she won the Miss Universe title. Every being , human and otherwise was dressed in black . Well, with the exception of Mohan , the college peon who turned up in a yellow kurta , but then Mohan was considered to be the worst dressed person in India after Govinda and was of no comfort to me. And yes the sleeves were nowhere near my flag post. They were closely cut into what I later came to know as mega sleeves.
I felt all eyes on me and a couple of them boring my head from behind. I suddenly wished I had Anil Kapoor’s magical watch he wore in Mr. India. I desperately sought out Raji, who looked cool in a black and gray outfit with yes , you guessed it MEGA SLEEVES!!! “Whatever happened to you?” she exclaimed looking at me as though I was Spielberg’s ET. “I thought this is what the world in general is wearing “ I muttered trying to evade those piercing eyes. Hah ! for the simple life of an amoeba!” It was babes, till last week. Don’t you watch Star Plus? Ever since Manish Malhotra expressed his views on bell sleeves and the orange and green colour , they are to be avoided like the pariah. Black is THE COLOR and mega sleeves rock!! Now, if you’ll excuse me , I can’t be seen hanging around an orange flag. I have a reputation to protect”
Well, that was the end of my social life ( not that it was all that great to begin with) for the next six months and it was just not funny being called ‘Rasna Nagpur Orange’ a name that still sticks.
Once bitten, twice shy. Shakespeare has his sweet revenge and I returned back to my world of Keats, Shakespeare and Wordsworth and have tried to stay there since.
And for all you unfortunate ones , trying to get a foothold on this unstable domain of colours and patterns , my only advice is WATCH STAR PLUS…
Copyright (c) Neha Shinde
4 comments:
This is the stuff you have written quite long back,in DSS days, if i remember correclty!
good writing :)
That's funny!! Nicely written.
hahahha.. dat was indeed very funny.. rasna nagpur orange.. y dint i read dis earlier..!!!
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