Fashion

I am convinced fashion should be a mandatory 0 credit course in college in India. Everytime I fly out of or into the United States, the flights are filled with a bunch of desis wearing well...interesting clothes, like for example dark brown trousers with light brown dress shirt and sneakers with black socks. Then ofcourse there always are the people (me including!!) who fly into the united States in summer wearing a jacket, expecting it to be freezing!!

The point I am trying to make is that India is rapidly growing into a superpower and its highly skilled abundant workforce is increasingly seen as a great positive. What all this means is that we are going to have more and more Indians work in different parts of the world. While its our performance that really counts, first impressions do matter and looking sharp and fashionable can't definitely hurt us. Also being sensitive to the culture of the place and genuinely trying to understand it and trying the local costumes will only make us more amicable and win us friends and fans world over. After all when was the last time we got pissed at a western woman for wearing a saree ? (which btw I still think is the most elegant yet sexiest costume a woman can wear)

I know people who know me or seen me atleast once are probably wondering who I am to be talking about fashion, being a pathetic dresser myself? The problem I have with fashion is

1) I was born color blind and still am color blind...so no matter how much I try, I dont see crimson or turquoise or olive, I see the world in red, blue or green and my knowledge is limited to the 12 basic colors you get in a pack of crayons. (I did really try...check out http://www.yaelf.com/colour.shtml) So if somebody tells me crimson will look good with ivory black...sure but first of all how does crimson and ivory black look like? you get the point?

2) Being an Engineer, it troubles me if something doesnt follow rules and can't be defined by algorithms and basic laws..and fashion is a fitting example of something that just doesnt follow any rules..Infact I always hear..to be fashionable you got to first break all rules and yet somehow when I break all rules...I look pretty disgusting!! And where rules do apply I follow them painstakingly...like the color of your socks should be the same as the color of your trousers, the color of your belt should match the color of your shoes, wide big ass buckle belt for jeans and dressier belts for trousers etc.,

Guess again that's where a course could have helped. I can vow if there was something like that 99% of college students wouldnt have missed a single class....it would have become like the "mid-day meal" for many college students to get to class.