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On the progress of civilization, I cannot but agree, tenfold, with my father's definition:
"Spend more, get less"
Take for instance men's wear.
First I had cotton shirts made of Poplin. They were good enough for me. They stood my rough and tumble school years and must have cost little, on the whole. Also Binny's founded in our own Madras.
By the time I was in the first year at my university, I stopped playing and my cheap Poplin shirts ought to have lasted longer and cost Father less, on the whole.
In my second year there, my well-to-do classmates started wearing newfangled shirts made proudly of what they called Rayon. They were the craze for a couple of years. Apparently they were made of cellulose fiber drawn from trees. I tried one of them and gave up...they felt like made of thin skin and came in rude colors. Then came Rayon pants and they were as shiny as plastic sheets and cost four times cotton; and as many times uncomfortable in the humid seaside city of Vizagh.
In another couple of years there arrived in the market what were the ultimate in fashion...Terylene shirts. Very very costly. I tried one as soon as I got my first scholarship in Vizagh. They were no doubt crease-free...crumple them as you wish and nothing happens...they uncrumple themselves. They came with a snag though. You can't wash them in washing soda. You have to buy what came up as Sunlight (Lux) Flakes which were costlier than Terylene itself. But they had no holes in them and so you sweat and swear all the time.
Fabric manufacturers found the solution: mix Terylene with cotton to get Terycot shirts for summer wear, and mix wool with Terylene to get Terywool pants for the Vizagh winter (nonexistent). Terycot shirts and pants were my staple at IIT KGP and they were ok for me.
After I retired and started living in Hyderabad with my son who used to go often to the US on business trips, things reverted to ground zero.
He bought for me a fancy shirt saying it is a branded one like Peter England. And he said that my half-shirt cost him all of Rs 1500. I asked him what is great about it and he said it is made of pure cotton. And I wore it and it got crumpled everywhere within an hour of my auto-ride and absorbed so much sweat that I had to strip. And I showed him my good old high school-like pure cotton half-shirt available on the pavements of Chintal Busti @ Rs 50 per piece and Rs 90 for a pair. It looked and felt no different.
That, in short, is the progress of civilization.
So with men's underwear.
I never wore any banian (vest) during my school days. But Father did. He got his banians stitched by our tailor, Jaan Saheb. And from pure cotton cloth called kora. They were as good as half-shirts (now called T-shirts). He got them made in pairs to save cost and they served him alright in our seaside Muthukur.
A half-century later, in the Gole Bazaar at KGP, there arrived what were called P3 banians, each costing a whopping Rs 80 (sandow) and Rs 120 (sleeved). They felt light alright but flimsy, and on inquiry I was told they were costly because they were made of pure Egyptian Cotton.
I am sure our own famous 'export quality' banians from Tirupur cost a whopping 20 EGP (20 Egyptian Pounds = Rs 170) in Cairo, and when asked why, the Turkish-looking salesman would say:
"It is pure Indian Cotton, you know!"
That is what the famous Nile Valley Civilization has come to.
And my Builder here calls our Gated Community:
"Janapriya Nile Valley Township"
I am sure, if sent to Cairo as a phoren builder with German Technology as he calls it, he would call his township there:
"Turkpriya Indus Valley Township"
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On the progress of civilization, I cannot but agree, tenfold, with my father's definition:
"Spend more, get less"
Take for instance men's wear.
First I had cotton shirts made of Poplin. They were good enough for me. They stood my rough and tumble school years and must have cost little, on the whole. Also Binny's founded in our own Madras.
By the time I was in the first year at my university, I stopped playing and my cheap Poplin shirts ought to have lasted longer and cost Father less, on the whole.
In my second year there, my well-to-do classmates started wearing newfangled shirts made proudly of what they called Rayon. They were the craze for a couple of years. Apparently they were made of cellulose fiber drawn from trees. I tried one of them and gave up...they felt like made of thin skin and came in rude colors. Then came Rayon pants and they were as shiny as plastic sheets and cost four times cotton; and as many times uncomfortable in the humid seaside city of Vizagh.
In another couple of years there arrived in the market what were the ultimate in fashion...Terylene shirts. Very very costly. I tried one as soon as I got my first scholarship in Vizagh. They were no doubt crease-free...crumple them as you wish and nothing happens...they uncrumple themselves. They came with a snag though. You can't wash them in washing soda. You have to buy what came up as Sunlight (Lux) Flakes which were costlier than Terylene itself. But they had no holes in them and so you sweat and swear all the time.
Fabric manufacturers found the solution: mix Terylene with cotton to get Terycot shirts for summer wear, and mix wool with Terylene to get Terywool pants for the Vizagh winter (nonexistent). Terycot shirts and pants were my staple at IIT KGP and they were ok for me.
After I retired and started living in Hyderabad with my son who used to go often to the US on business trips, things reverted to ground zero.
He bought for me a fancy shirt saying it is a branded one like Peter England. And he said that my half-shirt cost him all of Rs 1500. I asked him what is great about it and he said it is made of pure cotton. And I wore it and it got crumpled everywhere within an hour of my auto-ride and absorbed so much sweat that I had to strip. And I showed him my good old high school-like pure cotton half-shirt available on the pavements of Chintal Busti @ Rs 50 per piece and Rs 90 for a pair. It looked and felt no different.
That, in short, is the progress of civilization.
So with men's underwear.
I never wore any banian (vest) during my school days. But Father did. He got his banians stitched by our tailor, Jaan Saheb. And from pure cotton cloth called kora. They were as good as half-shirts (now called T-shirts). He got them made in pairs to save cost and they served him alright in our seaside Muthukur.
A half-century later, in the Gole Bazaar at KGP, there arrived what were called P3 banians, each costing a whopping Rs 80 (sandow) and Rs 120 (sleeved). They felt light alright but flimsy, and on inquiry I was told they were costly because they were made of pure Egyptian Cotton.
I am sure our own famous 'export quality' banians from Tirupur cost a whopping 20 EGP (20 Egyptian Pounds = Rs 170) in Cairo, and when asked why, the Turkish-looking salesman would say:
"It is pure Indian Cotton, you know!"
That is what the famous Nile Valley Civilization has come to.
And my Builder here calls our Gated Community:
"Janapriya Nile Valley Township"
I am sure, if sent to Cairo as a phoren builder with German Technology as he calls it, he would call his township there:
"Turkpriya Indus Valley Township"
...Posted by Ishani
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