Sherwa(r)ni

Last Friday, the 22nd of October, we were requested by our Unit HR at work, to come dressed in "Ethnic Wear" to the office. Such requests do happen once  a month or once in two months and this one was pretty much the first one by our Unit folks in a long time.

I usually don't take part in these events, because I don't have that many options of "Ethnic Wear" at my disposal. I have one Sherwani that I last wore for such an event in Jan 2007 and it is lying inside my cupboard ever since. The only other option is to wear a vaeshti (dhoti), but I am always under a constant fear that when I wear it, the Fall season would start because (a) I would trip and fall or worse, (b) The vaeshti would fall off.

When this "Ethnic Wear" request came up this time, I decided to let the Sherwani see the light of the day, since it has been lying inside my cupboard, wrapped in the very bag that the Dry Cleaners had returned it to me, in Jan 2007. However, I was afraid if I would fit into it and so checked it the previous night. Thankfully, I did fit into it. But I anticipated issues in me being able to stay in it for the whole day at work, because the material was not 100% cotton. So, I packed a spare set of regular clothing in the form of my Jeans and a T-Shirt.

On Friday, I went to the office in the Sherwani, and I must admit that when I went to the Food Court for breakfast, I did get more than my usual share of stares from the members of the opposite sex. At one point I even heard some cat calls, but I quickly realized that it was the ring tone in someone's mobile.

When I went towards my cubicle, a couple of my team members who were standing elsewhere, actually came up to me to see if it really was me! And I got quite a few compliments that it looked good. Some of them were slightly smarter enough to say that I looked very good in it. Someone else first almost guffawed, but quickly recovered himself and said that I looked some 5 years younger! So, he basically complimented me once and ridiculed me twice in a span of 5 seconds (If you are keeping count, the compliment was that I looked younger and the ridicule was the near-guffaw and the fact that he thinks that I am actually old!). My boss even said that I looked like a Groom and I told him that I am treating this as my dress-rehearsal.

But all these compliments aside, there are somethings absolutely uncomfortable in a Sherwani. First of all, the dupatta/Stole or whatever it is called. While it certainly adds some color to the costume, maintaining it one the body is quite difficult. You have to ensure that it is hanging equally on both sides of your shoulder. Or, it should be properly wrapped once around your neck without strangling you. And in any case, irrespective of how you place it, once you sit down, one of its ends somehow manages to find its way into the casters of the chair and you would likely be strangled when you turn around or when you move the chair.

You can overcome the problem with the casters, by placing it on the table while sitting. But, the sitting itself is the next problem. You see, the way the Sherwani is designed, the leg portion of it is rather tight to avoid making it look like a pyjama. And yet, the upper portion of it is pretty much at the same shape and patter as the regular pyjama. This design, my friends, makes it extremely difficult to sit. Because, the tighter portion of the costume, actually starts around the knees. And due to the "tightness", there is way too much pressure on the slightly looser upper segment of the same piece of clothing. This means that you cannot simply plonk yourself onto a chair and have to gracefully ease yourself into that piece of furniture. If you sit down in any other fashion, those around you may hear a Big Rip! 

BUT, the real big problem with the Sherwani, is the sheer inconvenience it brings to the wearer, when the wearer has to make use of a restroom. Irrespective of whether you are inside for minor reasons or major, the sheer number of pieces of garments that need to be aligned properly, makes it imperative that you reach the venue slightly earlier than your regular routine. In fact, you need to strategise what you eat and how much of liquid you drink, so that the trips to the restroom can be well regulated and planned out as well.

So, in my opinion, this costume must be worn when you know for sure that it would not be on you for more than say 2 hours and also, when you don't have to sit that much. Its purpose is to make you look good and it sure does. So, my suggestion would be to go with a friend to a shop that sells costly Sherwanis. Try out one of them and get your friend to take pictures when you come out of the changing room. Then tell the shop guys that you didn't like it!

The mini pilgrimage in March 2010 – Day 0

After a lot of pleading, hinting, cajoling, guiding, recommending, suggesting, nudging etc., I finally relented and agreed to make the long pending visit to Thirumanachery. To those of you who are not aware about the significance of this town, please be advised that a visit to the Shivan kovil in this town and doing the special poojai there, will help in ending the “single” marital status of an indvidual.

I had been asked to go to this place by countless people and now that I think about it, I don't think any of them actually got married after going through the routine that they advise me. But, I finally decided to take their suggestion in good faith and a trip was finally planned. We were to visit that temple of the 4th of March and return by the morning of March 6th, since I had a project party to partake in. 

The tour almost didnt happen, because of the health of my parents. My father was having another bout of amoebiasis and my mother had a small kitchen accident which caused a 3" diameter burn mark near her right elbow. But both of them were quite particular that this trip not be delayed, because they didn't want to bow down to any obstacle to a trip being planned with the main purpose of removing obstacles! 

So there we were opposite the Thiruvanmiyur bus stand at 10:40 PM on the 3rd of March, waiting for the Rathimeena bus scheduled to arrive at 11:05 PM. My dear friend Raghu had dropped us at the bus stand. Thankfully, we didnt make him wait, because the bus finally showed up a few minutes before midnight. 

This was the first time I was travelling on this bus and I must admit that it was good. I had opted for a semi-sleeper AC bus for this trip, though my lack of knowledge in this area meant that I didnt book their full-sleeper bus. The seats were quite comfortable, the AC was in full swing, we were given fresh blankets and there was also a supply of packaged water. 

The bus left the Thiruvanmiyur area a few minutes after midnight. Despite the relatively comfortable environment, I did have trouble falling asleep. It was primarily because I am not that used to sleeping in a bus unless I am really really tired. I was having a broken sleep and when the bus started slowing down at a place which I found out to be a petrol bunk in Pondichery, we took the usual toilet break. The time by then was 2 AM. 

The journey resumed in around 15 minutes and after more rounds of broken sleep, I finally heard some announce that the bus was in Mayavaram. When I checked the clock it was 5:00 AM. So the entire elapsed time was around 5 hours, with an actual travel time of just 4 hours 45 minutes. That, by Indian standards was quite fast! 

Day 1 updates in the next post.

MTC bus travel - A/C Bus

I travelled by one of MTC's A/C buses yesterday evening. This was a first time for me, though the buses have been in operation for quite some time now.

Raghu and I have been talking about making a trip on this bus from the minute the announcement about the introduction of these buses were made. But since he has not really "found time" to make the trip, we couldn't make that trip.

Last evening, I came out of the Guindy subway and those of you familiar with the terrain there would realise that the subway opens into the bus stop. And when I stepped on to the stop, there was a 21G A/C bus waiting there. For a brief moment, I thought of boarding the bus. Then I thought of the "pact" with Raghu but then also remembered that he would not be making the trip, in spite of his tall claims, especially after his cousin narrated a harrowing experience involving someone vomiting in the bus.

So, I decided to board the bus. But the problem with that route - 21G - from my perspective is that, it takes a left turn near IIT and goes towards Kotturpuram. In effect this means that I would have to get down at Anna University stop itself. But I decided that the main aim was to travel by that bus and so decided in favor of boarding the bus.

Meanwhile the bus driver, who was not privy to all this mental processing (it actually took a much shorter time compared to the time it takes you to read it), started the bus from the stop. As I went towards the bus, I realised that he hadn't closed the door and also that he was actually doing a speed of 1 KmPH. So I was able to easily ask him if the bus stopped at Anna University and he nodded in the affirmative and even asked me to board the bus. His exact words were "umm.. vaanga sir", which was a rarity considering that if you somehow manage to speak to a driver by virtue of your good karma, the response would typically be along the lines "yaeru paa yaeru yaeru".

I boarded the bus and instantly felt the effect of the A/C which was in full blast. The temperature was definitely set at around 18 degrees. Even as I started moving towards the back of the bus, the conductor walked towards me and actually gave me a smile - the second shock in the space of one minute for me since no one has ever really given me a welcome smile inside a bus.

I bought my ticket and sat in the back half of the bus, which by the way is at an elevated level compared to the front portion, which is barely a foot above the road.


When the bus went up the Guindy flyover, I simply didn't feel that the bus was going up a slope. There was an internal speaker system through which some Tamil film music was being played. It didn't sound like radio, but am not sure about it.

Since my stop was actually the next one, I got to travel only around 1.5 Kms. Some 100 metres before the stop, there was an announcement over the speakers about what the next stop was. I got up from my seat with a really heavy heart that the good time was getting over so quickly and got out of the bus.

And to make things worse, in the next couple of minutes a bus headed to Besant Nagar came along and it was a rick-rack; probably one that was procured by the MTC during my school days!