The baton holders of Indian culture appear misguided. Their preference for external or false modernity has subdued the need for spiritual, physical and mental modernity. The girls donned in tight jeans and depleting revealing tops have become an ardent unit of upcoming modern society. Hypnotized by west, the modern younger lot prefers wearing revealing dresses with decreasing body coverage. It is being considered as the sole thermometer of modernity. The depleting body coverage has gained an alarming momentum not only in the urban society, but has also percolated in the semi-urban slots. The sad part of the story is that it is causing a decline in our ethical family bonding which is getting worse day by day. All this is happening in sheer disguise of modernity.
What sort of modernity
Question arises what sort of modernity are we trying to attain. Upgradation of all and sundry would lead to attainment of social modernity. If personal modernity is taken to be physical then it is utter shallowness sans any depth. It takes us to a deeper social problem that the west has been deeply plagued with whose outcomes have reached an alarming stage today.
We need to go for a balanced effort here otherwise the train of cultural life would be derailed as it is getting derailed in the west.
What is mode of dress all about? The basic cause of donning proper fitting clothes is to reveal the "real you" ie to show your own self. Now, revealing the real you consists of an all-round modern you laden with mental, spiritual and physical modernity is presented to the world. Hence to adorn or enhance external physical modernity, we resort to the aforesaid dress culture. The dresses should be properly fitted and tailored to suit the body figure, but it should not be tailored to arouse physical attraction in the viewers' mind. It should be tailored such that it arouses high admiration for one donning the dress. This can be applied even to the so called modern dress forms.
Dependence on outside decorations by clothes would be reduced if we enrich ourselves spiritually. Today life must be lived to its maximization. This neither means going haywire or getting depleted under traditional clothes. The need of the hour is a balanced approach. Life must be lived in a modern way but there has to be a dividing line which must not be crossed over.
Shachindra K Mishra
Print This Page
Terms
and Conditions