From: rgopu@cs.tamu.edu (Rangarathnam Gopu)
Subject: Re: sari, churidar, etc. (why should I.....?!)
Keywords: Indian, traditional, costumes
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 05:43:00 GMT

In article <14468@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> s910700@yallara.cs.rmit.OZ.AU (Mareena Joseph) writes:
>
>  Still most of the Indian students ask me: 'why you're still wearing indian
>costumes (I still wear churidar occasionally); why don't you cut your hair very
>short (I had very long hair); why do you wear bindi; (Of course
>I do wear bindi with indian  dresses, to give it a good look)' ; and the worst
>question is 'why Mareena, you're not wearing jeans, track suits, shorts, bike
>pants, too short skirts, etc ??????!!!!; why you're not going to the pubs, clubs
>and don't even try a glass of beer???!!!' .....Infact, I'm fed up answering 

	If all this is true, that's the dumbest bunch of stuff I ever 
heard.

>wonder how all my white friends know much more about my culture and know very
>well that i'm not the type like other girls are (they even know that indian
>girls won't go to the pubs and they won't muckaround with any boys, i mean
>indian girls born and brought up in india - i know this is wrong in the big 

	Why is it wrong?

>cities nowadays, but i didn't want to give them a bad impression on india),
>and why indians cannot ????? i had heard a lot of criticisms from many indians
>(those are from india !!!!), and only from indians; i really feel sorry for
>them, and i'm realizing the fact that the days of lord Rama is history, and

	Oh yeah? Tell that to the BJP.

>the community where girls were very well protected and considered as own 
>sisters has changed a lot, indeed a great lot !
>   I read in the news that indian girls hesitate to wear indian dresses to uni
>or to school in U.S., but now tell me, how they can when indians themselves
>are throwing stones on them ? Girls, why should we worry about others' unnecess-

	Not here,they dont.

>ary feelings ? have you noticed that most of the westerners who visit india
>still wear their frocks, shorts, etc. ? why the question, why they are not
>wearing sari or churidar or any indian costumes when they come to india doesn't
>arise in indians' (the type i mentioned above) mind ? 

	Maybe I'll wear veshti and angavastram to school one of these days.;-)
Considering I never did that back home, (To school I mean), and the fact
being that I no of no school (English medium, at least) that does not require
shirts, pants and shoes [sometimes ties - aarrgghh :-( ] maybe it's time
Indians back home asserted their Indian-ness - or rather at least their
non-Westernness. 

Yeah right. And Im sure we'll see some honest politicians in Lok Sabha.

Viva la sarees.

>  we're from the most ancient cultured country, where all the vedas and other
>scriptures were written, where people lived and moved in society even thousands
>of years before, where individual value and freedom was given, etc etc...   

and where Western influence is strongest 

>regards,
>Mareena Joseph Neyyarappally,

Gopu
rgopu@cs.tamu.edu
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