08.04.06

Dress code !!

Posted in Education, Humour at 6:12 am by The Intellectual Terrorist

Mahatma Gandhi had remarked that he wore minimal clothing since there were millions of people in his country with little clothes to wear. His famous words were ignored for decades until we hit the late 90’s and the younger generation decided to go Gandhian. Minimalist clothing is in. Tank tops, low necks, low waists, even lower waists, backless .. wow .. everything is in. Gandhi would have been proud!! Alas, our academicians are not.

Every University in India seems to be intent on enforcing a dress code. Worse, some are even thinking of segregation in classrooms.

Let’s start with clothes first.
Do we really need a dress code?
Code? Like my old neighbour says, ‘they don’t need a dress code, they need dresses. What’s with the bits and pieces?’. These people need clothes. Period !!

Here’s a good story.
An elderly person was traveling by public transport, and the dust caused him to have a sneezing bout. He wrongly reached out for the handkerchief that belonged to the young college going girl sitting next to him, and was rewarded with a nice slap. That was not a handkerchief, but her top!!
Just kidding : ), but I’m guessing you get the point.

I went to college a long time back … sometime in the early 90’s. It definitely seems to be a long time, since universities, schools and colleges look so different today. The difference is not in the buildings but the people in there. The new crowd … confident, arrogant and … with a whole new look. A whole generation has now been repackaged, rebranded and looks straight out of a music video.

I find it amazing that students can actually concentrate on studies; with all these trendy clothes on display, on fantastically toned, zero carb bodies. What we had to earlier buy film glossies to look at, can pretty much be seen by taking a walk to any educational institution. No need to even frequent a discotheque.

Jokes apart, I guess the current generation is in and confident and also has a head on the shoulders. They know their responsibilities, and study and work hard. Maybe party harder. But why grudge them that. Society’s always transform and mutate and move on. The previous generation always feels left out. I am in my early 30’s and definitely feel like an earlier generation when I check the new crowd !! Times are definitely changing fast.

There’s always a generation that reacts sharply to change. Now change is so rapid .. that you need not go back all the way to a previous generation. People younger than you by 5 years have now made you the previous generation. Your only option is to be like the bus conductor, get used to change!!

So to get to the question, should we have a dress code?
As long as people wear clothes that cover what’s necessary and are willing to take the attention that goes with it, we’re all fine. Standard clothing these days is low waist jeans and a t-shirt. This I guess is acceptable standard garb, globally. Let’s get used to this.
What’s not standard, is underwear viewing. I’m really not interested in knowing whether it’s VIP, Rupa, Calvin Klein or Jockey. Please let it stay in … and not pop out.

It’s very difficult to implement a dress code, unless you take into account the fact that what constituted minimal clothing 10 years ago, looks every ‘behanji’ today. So the bar has been raised and will continue to be challenged.

Students who have the right to vote and marry cannot be told about what should be worn and what shouldn’t. They are the best judge of that. Academics may have a tough time if they plan to play Moral Police.

Ideally a student body should be referred any student who seems to be crossing the line and the student body can deal with it on a case to case basis. Public obscenity is a criminal offense as well and students need to ensure that they do not cross the line.

The good thing about the tight fitting clothes is that everyone, male and female, is conscious of their looks and health. Flab is out, since it really shows considering the clothing people wear.
Gyms are booming and students are more concerned about their health, so what if it just to look good.

Segregation in colleges, is that going to help?

Oh yeah !! That would definitely help spread the gay movement.
If men and women co-exist in society and are supposed to work together, travel together, use public transport; they need to be comfortable with each other. Segregation draws a line in-between and makes it that much difficult to get people to be used to each other’s company. This creates extremely awkward social situations. A lot of males are extremely uncomfortable with woman around them and vice versa.

I live in the US. Every time I see a white woman or man I smile and say Hello. This is standard social behavior here. I do not maintain even that minimum courtesy when I see an Indian woman, cause in India that amounts to ‘showing interest’. I’ve seen that with Indian people all over the US. This all exhibit the same behavior.

People who need to co-exist in society need to know each other and acknowledge each other and social communication is the best way of achieving this.

The hallmark of a democratic society is the right to choose how one wants to live and not be dictated upon. Let us all enjoy this right and at the same time be aware of our responsibilities.

The Intellectual Terrorist

-blows your mind

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