Tuxedo Imperialism?

Me: Dulhe ke side se ho ki Dulhan ke? ( are you from the bride's or groom's side)
He: Mein Sehnai bajata hoo. ( I am the musician/flutists)

The office place is abuzz with a festive mood, pre-Diwali Buzz
more so because everyone had come in their traditional attire.
I also have come in a traditional attire, not my tradition though.
I have come in western traditional Attire. Shirts and trousers?

Set me thinking, when did men start to wear the ubiquitous shirt and the trouser?
With an occasional tie or a jacket, or do we call it coat or blazer?
Shah Rukh Khan even wore a Double Breast Jacket without an inner shirt in his earlier days in bollwood, read Ram Jaane. I am too lazy too google, so I am not writing the History.
But I guess it was the British, who made the suit into an international dress, like it did with English. Not that I am complaining. I wouldn't want to wear or a dhoti kurta or a Scottish Skirt( Kilt?). The jeans are T shirt I believe started from the slightly lesser formal Americas. But, our dress is Limited to either a Suit, a shirt-trouser or a jeans and Tee. Female folks of course have a whole lot of Dresses to choose from, be it a business formal. Is it because, the Ladies didn't have to work in the olden day and so the British didn't have the need to standardise a Business formal for the she. A ladies business formal can quite vary, where we men can get to wear just a Suit, a brown suit, a navy blue suit, or any other suit. We have pin striped as well, is it still in vogue?

But without anyone realising it, the British seem to have left another legacy much more common than the english itself. A chinese official not speaking english don't seem too out of place, but a japanese Business men in a Kimono would look rather out of place.


Its not an uncommon sight, in the TV during business meetings or trade meetings of country heads, where a Non-English Speaking Japanese Businessmen appears in a neatly tailored Saville Row suit. Well, more often than not, the non-English speaking Japanese businessmen do happen to know English Very well, they only choose not to speak the language of the infidels, not realising that They are wearing an English Suit. However, Indians have been known to carry the Dislike of the British Dressing sense up our sleeves. If not in a Khadi Kurta, our statesmen turn up in at least a bandhgala, invented by Nehru as the Indian Suit. We burnt British made fabrics during our freedom struggle, and the leaders who spearheaded the textile inferno planned the particular action in Impeccable English. We are more accomodating to the language than their Dress. Afterall, it is our English that gave us the edge in IT and ITes and not the saville row suits. Its a different matter that The Chinese and Japanese are quite a long way ahead of us in all the other RACE than call centres.

Oh yes, my point being, can we do something about this dependence on Suits and other western Clothing sense (we make and export the cloths, we only import the sense of clothing). It would be pointless to try to boycott English( half of us would be out of jobs then), and we can't do without cricket. But changing our dressing sense wouldn't dent our economy, nor would it put Sachin Tendulkar out of business. And the ladies look particularly sexy in some specific colours of the sari( read black, red and maroon). The guys of course look like they are in a marriage party. Some are like Sehnai players. On hindsight, I guess I had settle for a Shirt and Trouser or a Jeans and Tee at best. lets not boycott the dress either. The ladies may choose to come in Sari everyday, if the colours be Red, Black or Maroon.

The British, did gave certain good things in Life.

Also, Read about my Home, Manipur I have taken it as a social responsibilty to educate everyone about Manipur. We are not so bad a Race. Manipur