I could best describe this situation by following Filmy line …. “Majboor ye halaat idhar bhi hai udhar bhi” (“I am restrained by the compulsion is on either side”. Excuse my poor translation)
Following are a few pictures of My City, Calcutta. These are taken from emails which have been making round for sometime now and most of us have received once already! These pictures were taken in 1930ies (nineteen thirties) less than two decades prior to our independence from the British rule.
One point bothers me whenever I look at these images. Almost 200 years into British rule our people have been dressing themselves in traditional attire. But what happened in the next 25 years that made us to abandon(except for special occasions/ festivities) the “dhoti - kurta” altogether? Could we not have tried to do make our traditional attire evolve itself to stand up to the need of the 21st century?
I am thinking aloud and would welcome your thoughts on this!
Please click on the image for a bigger picture.
Personally I love the dhooti, esp if its worn with care and style. I insist on dhuti as an attire for all family occsaions to the hubby and he likes wearing one too, but as an office wear, in today's hectic schedules, am not sure how practical the dress would be. The pictures are very good. So wearing dhuti this pujo?
ReplyDeleteHow about dhoti with a zip? On a more serious note, everything else is almost unchanged, the buildings, the trams, the billboards, the hand pulled carts.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful picture of the old city. These are treasures.
ReplyDeleteSujata,
ReplyDeleteYes... You got a point about the hectic schedule etc ... but the nationals of the gulf countries seem to manage their national dress quite well for both formal and casual occasions.
No for me I do not think it will be possible this time…. Maybe sometime later
Annonymous,
yes only a few thing have changed ..... and sadly most of the things that shouldn't have!
Rajesh,
Thanks for visiting
Swatantra,
Thanks for your thoughts