NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 14, 2006: This humorous news piece about Indian men failing to wear traditional dress gives food for thought while entertaining the reader. Author Jerry Pinto speaks out, “I wonder why all of us men of the East have no confidence in our own traditions as far as dress codes go. Japanese men won’t wear kimonos to work and Indian men won’t wear kurtas. As soon as a young man earns his MBA, he retires all his Indian clothes and gets himself a wardrobe of suits. Never mind that the suit is completely unsuitable for tropical climates.” Then Pinto goes on to say that in youth these same men crawl into jeans which are hot in summer and completed unsuited to rainy weather because they never dry out when they get wet. He asks whether Indian men lack confidence or do they simply like to be hot and uncomfortable. Pinto concludes by saying, “The argument is that men in Indian clothes do not look businesslike. I don’t understand this argument, and I don’t buy it. If a woman in a salwar-kameez looks businesslike, then a man in a kurta should look businesslike. If a woman in a sari looks like she is ready to take on the world, a man in a sherwani should look like he is ready to schmooze with foreign clients. This is one of those few instances, in which the world works better for women and where being a male works against men. A kurta would keep you cool in the sun; it would keep you warm in the office. And the cut of the outfit is far more flattering to Indian men than Western clothes. Put a pot-bellied old plutocrat into a well-cut kurta and a multitude of sins of commission (too many buffets, too much chaakna, too many expense account martinis) and sins of omission (days skipped at the gym, the golf course or wherever), will be flatteringly hidden.”
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