Fashion : Dumb and Dumber

Came across this photograph of one of our celebrities , doesnt matter who, emerging from a lunch at some kind of posh place in Bandra. 

What boggled the mind is the extent to which anything passes of as fashion today, so long as some show business type in the west does it and you ape it.

We have such wonderful fabrics, and varieties of traditional and modern outfits worn in wonderful ways.  And this is clearly a slap on the face.

Perhaps as a friend  mentioned,  "Trying to empathise with those who can't afford to wear clothes which are not torn . That's in thing today -"

Odd way to show empathy.  If cut properly, you can make 2 kids pants out of these jeans.  Just saying ...

In fact if I were the kid in the foto, a few years later I would be mortified to see this.   But wait. Perhaps , there will be a kids version of torn , shredded pants..." 

कधी काळी अथक परिश्रम, घामाच्या धारा , एक वेळचेच जेवण, कंदिलात अभ्यास , दोनच कपडे आणि रात्री धुऊन ते पुन्हा घालणे , शिवणी घालून रफ़ू करून वापरणे , ह्या सगळ्यामुळे आयुष्यात पुढे येणे , शिकणे , आणि चांगले दिवस बघणे � ह्याला प्रगती/उन्नती म्हणायचे. आता मुद्दाम महागड्या चांगल्या कपड्याना कात्री लावणे, त्याच्यावर डाग पाडणे, लोम्बती लक्तरे घालून, एखाद्या वडापावला कोणाच्या तरी आठवड्याच्या अन्नखर्चा इतकी किंमत मोजणे , आणि "जरा सरकून घेणार का " असे ऐकल्यावर "व्वा! "सरकून"? नवीन वाईन का ?" असे उत्तर देणे , याला उन्नती म्हणतात . � खरं खोटं �माहित नाही, पण कोणाच्या तरी डोक्यात लक्तरे उदंड झाली आहेत ...

Stupid me. At one point progress was all about intense effort, endless perspiration, affording one meal-a-day, studying by candlelight, owning just 2 pairs of clothes, washing them at night, mending and darning them, and then one day, finishing your education, learning values, and coming up in the world . Today, it is about , deliberately cutting good clothes, creating spots on them, wearing them with torn pieces hanging down , eating in posh places paying the equivalence of someones weekly food expense, for a proletarian Vada Pao, and when someone says , in Mumabi Train lingo, "Jara Sarkun Ghenaar ka ?" ** they answer, "OOOOH! Is that the new wine ? "... Very clearly, someone's cortex appears to be overflowing with torn and shredded neurons ripping at the synapse. .

**"Jara 'Sarkun' Ghenaar ka ?" Literally translated as "Will you have a bit of Sarkun?", but is actually a typical phrase used by those who travel in Mumbai's supercrowded suburban trains, and end up asking folks sitting in a 3 seater bench, to move a little and create marginal space for a fourth person; anything to rest a tired body ..."Can you shift a bit ?"