Dressing Sense - by Smitha Kamat

NORMALLY, teenagers are supposed to be funkiest set of creatures. Blame their age factor, the growing up stage or the ‘instant age’, kids are bound to be kids, they want to rebel and revolt against everything and anything, and that goes for their sense of dressing.It is not strange to come across kids of this age who strip off the sleeves and replace it with odd, colourful tattoos. trousers ripped off at odd and even places and the hair wired, ears pierced , all culminating into a very firm statement.-- ‘We are big enough to know or better still we know what is best for us, so stop preaching’.

Being a lecturer, and interacting with the bunch, at times I wonder whether these kids are comfortable with what they wear, or is it a simple case of blind aping and cowing down to peer pressures?

Wearing those dangerously low waist jeans, and skintight tops, that leave very little to imagination, sure makes me a wee bit uncomfortable.

The trend seems to be concentrating on revealing than in concealing, with a blatant attitude of -‘if you have it flaunt it’. I may sound stoned, but, I personally feel, at workplace and at study place a code of conduct and a sense of dressing should prevail.

Views may differ, and I don’t object to that. However, certainly, the way we dress in turn regulates our behaviour, check it out yourself.

If you dress up like a punk, the punk in you is awakened; if you dress up formally, you are more restrained and formal in approach that is the reason each profession has certain dress code, be it doctors, lawyers, nurses or the armed personnel. The clothing serves as a constant reminder to the wearer what is expected of him and how he is expected to conduct himself.

At times, I really don’t blame these youngsters, when they are fed and reared glued to the idiot box, blaring, bare bodies, bellies and bottoms wriggling to hit the list. Do these kids have the right role models to emulate?

Hence the vicious cycle commences, trapping the teen, with -‘You do it, I do it, lets do it’ culture. That goes for apparels, footwear, hairdos, mobiles, bikes you name it.

Middle income families are facing nightmares to meet the demands of teenaged college going kids, who insist in keeping pace with their counterparts, who change from kurtas to kurtis, from caps to capris.

If you can’t you are left behind in the race, to be branded a ‘Bhengi’ or the ‘manna’ of the class. If this is the case, should we as teachers, parents and elders ruminate on this fact and take time to tell these youngsters that the path they are treading is really leading to nowhere.

In particular, lets make time to dress up, lets for a change learn to respect the body not flaunt it and that beauty lies in concealing and not revealing to all and sundry. I am not propagating habits and burkas, but definitely a fine line between permitted and permissiveness has to be drawn.