Fashion Fiesta

Fashion is the word that has been hogging the limelight these days in India with the "Lakme India Fashion week" happening in India. Who's who of the fashion Industry has been showcasing their talents or skin through some high profile Models, this includes the so-called very stylish Indian Cricketers like Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Mohammed Kaif. Though they are novices in the fashion world they survived the day. Here I've to say that the cricketers have never been trendy when it comes to looks and clothes except for 1 or 2. In the olden days Farookh Engineer was considered to be the most stylish cricketer from India although his English upbringing did help him in this regard. In the recent years Ajay Jadeja was voted the most stylish Indian Cricketer.

The one thing that is disturbing is that the other sports in India are not even considered for these kind of events and personally I feel the Tennis fraternity sores over the cricketing fraternity in the fashion world. Let's highlight couple of tennis players who have carried of everything with absolute style. Leander Paes the style Icon of the Indian sporting Fraternity has seen everything. He started of with the tight shorts and lengthy Tee's to now the famous Sleeves Tee's and the Bermudas (which is more famous in India than the traditional dhotis) and different hairdo's from the school boy cut to the Mushroom cut to now the more familiar pony tail with the Ear Stud ala Andre Agassi of the early 90's. Leander keeps reinventing himself in this regard that he undoubtedly is the fashion Icon of the sports persons in our country, he will win the contest Hands down anytime.

Mahesh Bhupathy is also trendy but he is not that experimental in his dressing, he is more of a suit wearing type rather than a Tee and a Jeans, but he's been voted a style icon in the past as well. Of course Sania Mirza with her nose ring and her flowing hair and sometimes the ever-great pony tail and her short skirts does make her one of the hottest in town.
There are sports persons who are not even talked about but laurels to the country should also be considered. Sports persons like Arjun Atwal, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Gaganajith singh, Jugraj singh, Geet sethi, Pankaj Advani and others. Cricketers from the other countries are lured for fashion shows like these but not one Indian non-cricketer. Strange!

I personally believe that these fashion shows are just a waste of time. Everybody know that these so called "Designer wears" are not going to be worn by the normal person who walks on the road rather than the ramps. These designers price their clothes so much that one can just think about window-shopping only.

Coming to the professional Models not many look ravishingly beautiful as Deepika Padukone (Daughter of Prakash Padukone) does and to certain extent Tapur Chatterjea. These two can pull of anything and come across as trendy.
The designers who dress these models don't look good themselves, again except for one or two. The one that come to mind immediately is the Gay designer Wendell Rodriguez oh dear he's probably the worst of the lot. Sabbyasachi Mukehrjea and JJ Vallaya are the best looking.

But then who am I to judge them?

The “Flag Factor”

The “Flag Factor”

It seems like a coincidence that my previous column was also about Patriotism and this one’s just along the same line. About 25 days ago or to be precise couple of days before the much anticipated India Vs Pakistan series started the Indian Ministry laid this dubious law regarding the sporting of Indian “Tricolour” by a civilian.

The Ministry said that it is an insult to sport the flag on the sporting Gear of the sportspersons and in particular they pointed finger at Sachin Tendulkar and Narain Karthikeyan. As we all know that Sachin used to sport the tricolour on his Helmet just under the Indian board’s crest and similarly Narain had painted his Helmet top with the “Tricolour”. What is wrong in that?

The Ministry has asked to remove the flag and instead has given permission to use the Tricolour without the “Asokha Chakra”. This is Ridiculous. Sachin has been sporting this “Tricolour” for over 8 years now, but all of a sudden this is an offence now. Narain just 2 days before his F1 debut was asked to remove it and he did it promptly, but Narain shot back at the Ministry by saying” If I had wanted I would have used the space to endorse some product which would have increased my bank balance but I wanted my country’s flag on it but now I am being denied.”

Hasn’t the Ministry been caught off guard in this? Now my question as an Indian is what is so wrong in displaying the flag on your flannels or sporting Gears? If this is wrong then why is the flag being used in advertisements?

We should be proud of those men who bring laurels to the country by waging battle on and off the field instead of making a mountain of a mole. Sachin still has the “Tricolour” inside his kit bag is another matter. Any person who’s an Indian regardless of his/her presence in the land should be able to carry the Flag as long as he / she doesn’t treat it disrespectfully.

So let’s all show the support in this regard and join them in bringing laurels to our “Bharath”.

“Sare Jahan se acha Hindustan Humara”

Jaihind !