Back to roots

Its an interesting time to be in Punjab these days, you don’t know who is crossing where, who is joining which party or who is going to come and save the state. Punjabi’s need saving, we are sinking in the mire of drug infused frenzy or shortage of water or just anything and everything that can be blamed on the ordinary farmer who has no clue that he is duped by the politician to further his claim to fame and power. I opened my what Sapp (my extension to living, as some say) to read what was happening all around in the world and I went to one of my group chats, which has my school buddies.

One of them had written, that her son was pointing out what she should wear to go to a popular place for children, in Delhi. He didn’t want her to wear a Punjabi salwar suit. In stead, he wanted her to wear a pantsuit / trouser suit, or anything that was modern.

According to him, a Punjabi suit was not what she should wear and he didn’t want her wearing it. This got me thinking, that how young our children get conditioned in thinking that wearing a suit was a no-no, its desi and not with it, not modern.

It’s the society we live in, these days she says. Materialism and class-consciousness has seeped in to such an extent that a child recognizes that if his mother is wearing the modern with it clothes then all is good. She doesn’t stand out she just blends. The mind at a tender young age is brain washed into thinking what blends and what is appropriate. A modern mother is one who wears the western n outfit and not the pendu, desi stalwart suit that is associated with the bhenji! Bhenji here means the colloquial term for one who is from a rural background and doesn’t know what is fashion or doesn’t stick her legs into drainpipe jeans with a t-shirt that has a subtle logo proclaiming how expensive it is. Wearing a dress or jeans or anything that is far from the five-mt suit with a duppatta is preferable and with it as it is a symbol of being modern, of having style and is fashionable.

Imagine the world these children are living gin, where clothes define your status, your shoes, your logos and brand makes you acceptable.

I wonder did we ever get free from the shackles of the rule after 69 years from the British’s or did we exchange the shackles from one yoke to another? Its interesting that in the struggle for freedom we gave up the clothes of the Englishman, by embracing Khadi, and our attire defiant against the rule and what the clothes stood for; but 70 years down the road we are back to embracing them with a vigor so strong and so deep that we don’t know that we are imprisoned with materialism.

National pride in our culture, our dress, our language is limited to the official paperwork, the speeches of the politician, and the requisite language subject we need for our tenth class board! Otherwise, believe you me, we would give a run to the Englishman for his money in walking, talking English!

The mushrooming of the Language /IELTS center in every nook and corner and every third shop and billboard, matrimonial advertisement and even out numbers the shauchalyas that Modi ji wants to build is a testament to the fact that we are still looking and searching for the dream of being a blue blooded gora!

Freedom is what we got, but somewhere along the years the society lost its plot of being free, as it again sunk into the outward projection of being modern by being defined by the clothes we wear. I thought, the old line was, “ when in Rome, do as the romans do … but here I think one cant even be a Punjabi!

I think I can safely say that soon we would have an obituary for the salwar suit and loving tributes would be paid. Farewell thee faithful, you were love, cherished and will be forever missed, but are now replaced by a dynamic, sleek, modern ,21^st century design .

I am still guilty of being faithful to the old fashioned, staid, ancient, frumpy , bhenji type suit !!

Teach your children to be independent of these stereotypes and recognize the person and not get duped by the packaging! Let’s free the mind and be truly independent and not be bogged down by outer covers and manifestations. Because without our roots , we are nothing .