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Brief lessons
This refers to the story ‘Try shopping for underwear in Chennai’ (MM, April 16th).
Times have changed. For years we were hesitant to speak of unmentionables. Now we are brave enough to bring the subject out into the open. The advertisements for underwear are becoming more and more explicit, with models shedding inhibitions even as they retain the briefest of briefs.
The advertisements portray men wearing underwear as muscular, manful and potent. I too don the advertised product but, alas, I don’t swing like the models do.
The other day I noticed a brand of underwear going by the name Flash. I trust that users don’t take a hint from that very suggestive appellation.
It would be prudent for a person to stick to a particular brand and style that is different from those used by other male members in the household so that you know that yours is yours. But a lesson that I have learnt is not to get too attached to any particular brand or a certain style of the brand. Absolutely delighted by everything about a Very Important Product, I wanted to replenish the stock after a couple of years. I noted every detail in the label and went to shop. I visited swanky malls and roadside kiosks, but nowhere could I get it. Why the company does not continue with a line is beyond me.
I have never liked open or decorative waistband elastic. For me, the elastic must be sewn into the cloth. Elastics can’t last forever, I do understand. But I have wondered whether they have a certain specific period of endurance, like the expiry period of shelf products. Believe me, after some months the elastics in a whole bunch of briefs that I was using became expansive in one particular week.
Each manufacturer puts the label at different places. One places it in front of the product. Another at the back. So if you have a variety of underwear, it can be quite confusing before you put your legs into any of them. Advice: Hold the brief for yourself, check and then get into it.
Similarly, there are different fly designs. You might want a particular design so that there is no confusion in places of convenience. If you want to be in a no-fly zone, well, go ahead!
For those who wear veshtis (which are increasingly becoming transparent), old-style drawers coming down to just above the knees are advisable. These come in striped cotton (reminding us of the cloth used for pillow cases decades ago). In Tamil films, rowdies hitch their veshtis to such heights that their underwear are patently visible – a sign of derring-do.
These drawers still have nadas (long cords) around the waist and you have to tie them properly and be doubly careful when unfastening. One wrong pull and you are in trouble. In those days, there were occasions when nadas used to come out completely. You asked your wife (girl friends never became close enough to see your intimate wear) for a safety pin and, after fastening it to one end of the nada, inserted the pin into the hole at the waist and ran it all the way until it came out of the other end. To prevent the nada parting with the drawer, some people tie both ends but this can be tricky while tying and untying.
Finally, do you know what is the most audacious combination of underwear? It is BRAVEST.
C.G. Rishikesh
A5, Madhurima
32, Conran Smith Road
Gopalapuram
Chennai 600 086
The Church stays
I would like to thank Madras Musings for the timely publication of my letter regarding the proposed demolition of St. Teresa’s Church, Nungambakkam.
On Easter Sunday it was announced that the reconstruction proposal was reversed and the building would remain. Thanks to the growing heritage consciousness in officialdom and out.
Gerald Lobo
169, Graemes Lane
Chennai 600 006
A rose man
I was sad to learn about the passing away of Dr.K.S. Venkataramani (MM, May 16th).
I used to know Dr. KSV and his wife at Kothagiri, where they had settled in their lovely cottage – The Roses. As the name suggests, he had several varieties of roses there, but had to remove them due to acute shortage of water for he could not bear to see them wilt before his eyes! That was during the early 1990s.
Dr. KSV was a highly respected figure amongst the planters of the Nilgiris. Many of them owe their prosperity to his ‘VP clones’.
D. Srinivasan
11/6, SBI Colony
Jeevarathnam Nagar
Adyar
Chennai 600 020
Bit of an exaggeration
MMM’s article regarding nighties (MM, May 16th) was exaggerated and an insult to the Eves of Chennai. Firstly, I would like to point out that there is no hard and fast rule as to the time and place a nightie can be worn in. It is the most comfortable dress for today’s woman. But I think the name nightie is inappropriate and it needs to be changed to maxi or something like that. Moreover, it covers a person fully and does not make one look immodest.
People find it okay with cheer-leaders and with people who wear skimpy clothes or hardly anything at all, but are critical of women who wear nighties. I don’t think any woman in her senses would wear a nightie to office. I have not seen women wearing nighties at temples or while dropping children in school as alleged. Maybe, while going to the shop nearby or while chatting with neighbours, it is worn. MMM exaggerates!
Juliana Sridhar
visaesh@yahoo.com
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A bit of sartorial male chauvinism (MM, May 16th) on nighties!
How many men wear veshti with pancha katcham?
How many old men appear in shorts!
N. Dharmeshwaran
Plot 21 Kumaran Nagar Guduvanchery 603 202
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MMM, clearly, you have never seen a ‘nightie’. The garment you are referring to is a maxi/kaftan, a very different ‘kettle of fish’, as they say. No self-respecting woman would go to bed in such a garment... too thick, too rough on the skin, too demoralising! Now, a ‘nightie’ should be soft, lacy and beribboned, skimpy, or otherwise, but for sure, any woman wearing one while going to the vegetable stall at the corner of the street, or to local temple risks courting arrest. The mind boggles! Google ‘Victoria’s Secret’ and see what I mean, though it is doubtful the said garment will be called a nightie! Whatever, I don’t think you will have seen anything like that in your peregrinations around our city.
Now for maxi/kaftan, that’s another story. As a male member, if you have to make a sudden trip to the grocery/vegetable shop, all you need to do is wrap your dhoti around your waist, put on a shirt or not, as you please, and go. For a woman it’s different ... a petticoat, a choli, then a saree, a salwar and a kurtha... may be a chunni, maybe not. Whatever, it takes more time, and in this heat is nuisance. But, then, there is the ubiquitous, aforesaid maxi/kaftan, just slip it over the head and off you go. It’s easy, doesn’t need ironing, is quite modest, though I grant you not very flattering, but when it’s vegetables you’re after, exactly whom do you wish to tantalise?
Give us a break, MMM. Do you really believe that seeing a maxi/kaftan would bring out the puritan instincts even in an orthodox, conservative male? That’s so funny! Now one of Victoria’s Secret creations at the end of your street .... my goodness me, that would really curl the hair of your moustache!
Radha Gopalakrishnan
26/2 Arundale Beach Road
Kalakshetra Colony
Chennai 600 090
Younger brother
In the article on Sri Murugan Talkies (MM, May 1st) it was stated that MGR was called Chinnavar. This was NOT because of his youthful appearance but was to distinguish him from his elder brother, M.G. Chakrapani, who was Periyavar. Also, MGR suddenly took ill in 1984 and was not on his death bed in 1984.
Dr. Panchaksharam Selvarajan
5050/1, Ponni Colony
Anna Nagar West
Chennai 600 040
Swallows or swifts?
I refer to N. Dorai Bhaskaran’s response (MM, April 1st) to my ‘Bird bunting’ report. Is it more likely that the birds I sighted and photographed were Barn swallows because House swifts are much bigger birds? Hopeland Ponniah, a bird watcher, says so too, judging from what he could make out from the picture.
T.K. Srinivas Chari
4/39, East II Cross Street
Shenoy Nagar
Chennai 600 030
Setting it straight
The page 1 headline (MM, May 16th) of the statue story should have been ‘Public property’ and not as it appeared: ‘Private property’. We regret the error. But it must be added that private property too suffers such desecration.
The Editor
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