“Unbreakable imported” Chinaware or Jalandar ki lassi tumbler

Friday workday was ethnic day at office. I reached office a little early than usual…me in a kurtha, jeans and chunri. Strike 9 am and the flow started. Men and women marched in their Patanis, Kanjeevarams, Mundu veshti, Sherwanis, Mysore Turbans…so on and so forth. I am not exaggerating when I say that each one looked as gorgeous as the word could mean and sound. One colleague in his Kodugu gown and head gear caused enough excitement among ladies for their hearts to complain of being over-worked in blood pumping. Not to mention that lady clothed in a Gujarati style saree…so very beautiful. I have always endorsed whenever elders at home discussed the importance of being dressed in our ethnic attires when the occasion arises. I strongly feel that the ethnic attires of Indian women are a celebration of feminine beauty! Anyone who wears those looks so gorgeous. Its just not about the looks, that is just a by-product. Its about colour, about the care and thought with which they have been designed, its about adding beauty and grandeur - grandeur so well blended with simplicity, without having to expose our skin to this atmosphere, this atmosphere whose Ozone is considerably depleted!

We have masses swarming shopping malls hunting for techni-colour tops and patched jeans. Hello! Please throw a glance at that beautiful Sherwani hanging on that stand with such simple majesty!

I was at a shopping mall yesterday looking for a Chinaware dinner set for a relative. The kind shopkeeper dug out half a dozen varieties, he even slammed one against other to show me how unbreakable they were. He even showed me his trump card – chinaware imported from US of A ! Whenever did Uncle Sam become such an excellent potter!!
I was very wary of it all, yet decided to go for it. As I gingerly felt my pocket for the wallet, I heard a wise lady quip rather emotionally in Punjabi, “ You call this unbreakable? I tell you, they can never match the endurance and grandeur of the Lassi tumblers of Jalandar!!..Ahh” The shopkeeper tried hard to hide is endorsing nod, lest he be viewed of breaching integrity to his business.

That very statement induced a chain of thoughts in me – I of course did not buy the dinner set. Instead I walked in to a cyber café to pen those flowing thoughts.