Dated: Feb 2011
Winters went by with no blogging…I did not like that especially as I was just getting into the groove but really couldn’t think of anything worth writing and whatever I would have penned down would carry an element of cribbing and whining about the ‘dilli ki sardi’ (Delhi’s bone biting cold). Lo and behold, finally I found something to talk about. Not sure if this will interest many but a lot of my friends may relate since they may have been confronted with the same question - Damn, what’s with this BLING, this ostentation all around?
Some days back I stepped out to buy a suit for a friend’s marriage which I was to attend in the following week and decided to go to one of the many malls in Delhi to save time. Never realized that what was meant to be a therapeutic, and simple and quick exercise (since I’m not a difficult buyer) would turn out to be such a galling and fretful experience, and also an interesting realization of the times I am living in!
I walked in and out of some eight stores, obviously empty-handed, dismayed and completely annoyed to learn that almost all these places had forgotten what ‘Indian-ethnic and aesthetics’ meant. Sadly, even stores like Kalpana, Meena Bazar and Zardozi turned out to be unfaithful. What happened to their elegant and classy work, where did it all go? Why was all of that replaced with loud and shrieking colors, big flashy rocks n stones, hideous gainda-gulaab type embroidery, and the cuts that were all such a shocker to someone who still prefers to wear middle-of-the-road styles. Ofourse, I must mention the use of netty dress material that is meant to be oh-so- sexy. Gosh, even the footwear and handbags were outrightly garish. Does this mean that we women are now expected to dress up like those wannabe celebs or those scheming characters in the Zee TV and Star Plus soaps who always look the same even when they go to bed, or get up or are mourning. My head was spinning after making endless efforts to explain to the salesmen what I was looking for and getting the same response, “Madam aajkal to yehi chalta hai (This is what sells these days)”. Yeah right man, thankfully, I don’t belong to this aajkal era of shine, sheen, gloss and glitz. Undoubtedly, I like to be fashionable and stylish but with a sense of tastefulness, and I was not going to give into this extreme form of tackiness.
At the end of it as I sipped my coffee and mulled over the experience along with the friend who was accompanying me on this bizarre shopping spree, we thought of what makes people buy and wear such things…do they want to make a ridiculous statement of one’s wealth or a certain class; is this an identity crisis of some sort; have we just grown old while this is a thing of the new generation; or is this a degradation of sensibilities of taste and aesthetics where elegance has totally gone for a toss. We like to believe in the last one. This also means that the shopping options for people like us are fewer now but thankfully still there!
Before I finish, to quench your curiosity let me tell you that I ended up buying the good old silk kurta-salwar- dupatta and silver from the good old Fab India and ended up dressing in the same old way… beautifully! ;-)
