A wonderfull but dangerous dress, without any stitches...

Last day, we celebrated Ethnic day in our company.

We were supposed to come in traditional wear... That means being a Mallu, I was supposed to wear a Mundu (Dhothi). Normally I wear Jeans with shirts or T-shirts. This was the first time I was going to wear Dhothi to office. Unlike other mallus, I'm not used to this piece of clothing... From my childhood, I preferred something more reliable and safe than a simple piece of cloth wrapped around the body without the help of any buckles, buttons or hooks!!! I'm not telling that I don't like Mundu. I love the prestigious looks which a "kasavu mundu" (A cream colored dhothi with a one or two inch Border made with Golden thread) and a matching shirt can provide. The only thing that I hate is the insecurity that you will feel due to the Simple method of wrap-around-and-tuck-it-in technology fixing it on your waist. It's too simple that a wrong move can cause a wardrobe malfunction and give you a sudden popularity boost Like Janet Jackson, carol Gracious, Britney Spears etc. After writing this, I noticed that only Females get a boost due to wardrobe malfunctions. I remember one incident which happened few years back. A famous actor came to our town for the inauguration of a Famous Textiles showroom. He was wearing a dhothi and in the rush caused by his fans, he lost it in the way to the shop. As it was a textiles showroom, they were able to give him another one. But the next day, none of the newspapers displayed the digitally blurred image of that incident. The world is full of sexual discrimination. if it was anyone from the opposite sex then the incident would have got a lot more importance in the media world...

Coming back to topic...
After thinking about the risk factors, I decided to go ahead with the plan to wear it. Then the next problem was to obtain a Mundu. I don't have a dhothi. So early in the morning, I Started my bike and went in search of Dhothi. I was not sure about the place to get a Kerala style Kasavu mundu in Bangalore. So I decided to raid my friends. I reached their room by 7:30 and they were still sleeping.. (Lazy guys). I woke them up and told the reason for my visit. They cursed me for waking them up so early... One of them told that he have one but he's not sure where it was. He pointed to the cupboard and told it is somewhere inside that. After telling that, he turned to the other side and dived back into deep sleep...

It was really dark inside the room because of the power failure, which is a common thing in Madiwala. I opened the cupboard and was shocked by a sudden attack from the top rack of the cupboard!!!

No, it ws not a burglar hiding inside it or any ghost sleeping in the cupboard due to scarcity of space in that room. It was a huge pile of cloth which they had squeezed in to make the room look clean (If you have visited or you are living in a bachelors den, then you will understand what I was referring). When I opened the door, it sprang out and I jumped back. After regaining the sense, I jumped into the pile in search of the Dhothi. After picking up a lot of while cloths like Towels, bedsheets, white shirts etc for 10 minutes, I got the dhothi packed nicely in a polythene bag. Thank god, otherwise it would have got the smell of the dirty clothes stuffed along with that and I would have been forced to discard it.

I came back to my room with the dhothi and called my team mates to inform that I was successful. Three out of five friends, who agreed to wear a dhothi, backed out. Even though the others backed out, we two decided to go ahead with the plan.

To avoid the risk of Malfunctioning, I decided to wear a belt above the Mundu, after fixing it in place using the wrap-around-and-tuck-it-in technology. So, with the reinforced Mundu, I headed to my Office. The first response I got was from my driver. He was shocked and his response was like "yean Saar, You going to office in a "Lungi"??? I tried to explain that it was not a lungi. That was the first reaction. Before reaching office, I went to a shop to drink a tea. The guy in the shop was a mallu, but born and brought up in B'lore itself. He also asked me the same thing...!!! This time I was not amused. I was angry because he was a malayalee and he is not supposed to call it a Lungi. By my reaction, he understood something was wrong and he corrected himself. This time, he told "Vella Lungi" (Vella means White). Again Lungi??? I shouted, it is not a Lungi, It is a "Kasavu mundu". He exclaimed...Both are same!!! By his expresion, I understood that he don't know anything about it. So I stopped explaining and went inside the office.

I entered the office in royal style.

First attack came from my friend who is from North India... He was in a Sherwani and was confident about his dress. I was holding the one end of Mundu in hand, in typical mallu style. He was excited to see the new attire and he pulled that end... For one moment, I thought I was going to be half-naked in-front of my entire team. Thanks to the Belt... It did not fell of. Somehow, I convinced him that this is a peculiar type of clothing and it must be handled carefully.

The second attack happened in the cafeteria, in-front of hundreds of people. One of my friends was so curious about the design and technology of the dress. She thought that it is like a skirt and pulled at the free end to check why there was an un-stitched end!!! This time the belt was unsuccessful against the pull. It almost came out but I managed to keep it from falling down, by sitting down on a chair. Thank god... Otherwise, I would have been prosecuted for Public nudity ... I went to the rest room and arranged the dress back to normal and reinforced it with the belt.

After these attacks from other people and various faults from my side (like stepping on it, getting stuck on the wheel of the chair etc), I successfully managed to keep it on the place it was supposed to be, for the entire day.

When I reached back to my place, I understood one more thing... Even the dogs in our street were seeing it for the first time!!! They waited till the car left and then starting barking loudly and tried to attack me. Somehow I managed to reach my room, in one piece. I was relieved very much, when I changed back to my favorite and comfortable shorts and t-shirt.

The one thing that surprised me is that even though Malayalees are spread all around the world, we still have these many people who are not aware of this dress. In B'lore, if you throw a stone to any direction, it will hit a Software engineer or a Mallu. Also remember that our neighbors (Tamilians) also use the same type of traditional dress. Even then, it is a strange dress here.

I dedicate this post to all the mallu's who wear a mundu 365 days.... U people work a lot, to maintain the traditional values...