Monday, July 4, 2016

Fashion and Style

Yet again I am here posting a random thought.

To be able to explore more on this topic, I picked up an online course on fashion, which I eventually did not finish. Hence my take on this subject is more personal than professional.

I have always been intrigued by the subject of style, fashion, and the types, and yet have had my own fair share (or more) of wardrobe malfunctions that I will never be proud of. But this is not about those bad times, it is about the rest.

After a few malfunctions, a couple friends who also happen to be colleagues gave me their valuable contribution of time to avoid another malfunction. When they thought everything was fine, one of them told me that the main aspect of all this is to be comfortable. I am compelled to believe in him given my experiences.

However, there are a lot of people who would walk that extra mile in pain wearing a smile to try hard to cover the agony they compel themselves to carry. In fact, a close friend always tells me "Beauty is pain" and she does things painful to her to seem beautiful. However, I have recently in the past been rebellious to please people to be accepted. It is a never ending saga to go about pleasing people by putting yourself in pain or betraying your own ideas in life.

There is another close friend in my circle, who actually does care for people. She probably cares for them a lot more than she does for herself. But the topic I am here to discuss is about her sense of dressing. I like her in any outfit she is in. I was pondering why, and realized that it is her confidence that makes her carry herself comfortably. She is unapologetic in saying no to a way of wearing whatever is uncomfortable to her. She only chooses what she feels comfortable to her. Surprisingly, I don't know if it co-incidence or not, she looks fabulous even in the most senseless colour combinations, and patterns of stitches that make the very outfit(I somehow overuse the word dress. I am trying hard not to abuse it by not using it at all)

The former friend I mentioned tends to wear clothes that don't look bad, and are not bad by themselves. But I don't find her appealing always. It is very rare that I take a moment to spare her my attention. On the contrary, I take time to keep my mind off her presentation or try to un-see what I saw. I always get reprimands from her, with her comments that I dress like an old woman. Sometimes the latter also worries I am turning into an old and grumpy woman.

At one point, I absolutely had to snap. When she(former) wanted me to alter a dress of mine to make it appealing to the "current trend" I just could not stand it. Because it was one that I got stitched to my interest. I was unapologetic to say "I don't believe I should wear what the self-proclaimed fashion gods believe I should be wearing. What I wear is pretty comfortable and fashionable to me" In spite of this agitated response, I still get unsolicited advises on how I should be fashionable by following a current trend.

Fashion, in my opinion is whatever one wears, and not always following a current trend or a person. I was a 15 year old when an old man in a bangle store told me that fashion is whatever one wears, and one must wear what one likes to wear. I still find that empowering. For fashion to be stylish, one must be confident, and to be confident, one must feel comfortable in one's own skin. Because it is not just what we wear, it is also what we don't do to our clothes, our skin, our hair or our very structure.

It is easier said that done for me to tell that you should like yourself however you are, when I beat myself up on not being slim. But there are times you must tell yourself that nobody is perfect.
Perfection is your own perception of how you want to be. If you want to be fashionable and stylish, be that! Not being that, is what self proclaimed fashion gods en-cash on. There is nothing to be ashamed of in getting your clothes stitched by a tailor, when you pick your own fabric, colour, and pattern, and he goes by how you want it done. You are your own stylist!

Beauty is not pain. Neither does it lie in you (inside nor out).
When someone says you are beautiful, it is the beauty in their eyes that gives you a compliment. 

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Comparing a day to the gym

Its been a long time since I wrote anything here or anywhere for that matter, I decided yesterday to write down something I thought was worth entering the blog

I do not own this image, I am merely using it to support my article, and to do a bit of marketing to the guy who actually took it. Just compare it to a random share on facebook-that is where I found it anyways


I am inspired to write by the event that happened at home and the above picture. Translating it from French, it means "Are you telling me that people go to the gym by car to run on a rolling carpet?"

I was reminded of this picture that I first saw long back, when I saw Gordon Ramsay beat the eggs by hand, and said "Why use an electric beater to save time here and then fret out in the gym. Works well on the biceps eventually by the way" Now these are not exactly the words he used, but largely, this is what he said. I was not a fan of this guy, and am still not. Just that I don't hate him as much as I used to.

This guy compared an egg beater to a workout in the gym, just like the kid comparing a car and the treadmill.

I am now comparing the gym to a washing machine. The events are as follows:

Sadly, the locality I live in is infested with rodents. Although I think squirrels are cute, I don't share the same thoughts on other species of that class.

One of them entered my household, and happily enjoyed destroying my washing machine. The wires, the very frame(!) and plumbing pipes satiated its palate, and gave its teeth a pleasure of whatever nonsensical sort, at my expense.

Two loads of clothes have not been washed. The electrician, being a rare species is difficult to find, and if found, the probability of him actually doing the work is almost nil. And with my past experience, I will safely say "zero".

With no clothes left to wear, and an option of either washing the clothes or not bathing, I decided to sit down and wash the clothes.

By now, I was also in a state of despair for the extremely challenging things I was doing and not losing even a gram of weight. Washing clothes seemed like another thing that might kindle some promising results. I took one load of clothes, which consisted most of my clothes, and very few of my mother's. Since I had never washed clothes before, I had to get an instruction on how to execute this task. After mom explained how it is to be done, I decided to take the challenge. The very posture that I had to maintain to sit seemed like an endurance sport. Well, blame the kind of toilets we use nowadays!

By the time I began washing clothes, I was reminded of Gordon Ramsay and that kid in the above poster. I thought it was about time to forget doing any exercise, but just do my own work to keep me fit.

Like anyone's first day at the gym, my first day on the floor was....typical! I was exhausted pretty soon, by when I knew what an exercise it was and started falling short of breath because my legs were hurting. By now, I had successfully washed ONE t-shirt.

After finishing one load of clothes, I did the one thing everybody loves in a yoga session- sleep asana. I finished one session of intense workout and had my much deserved bath.
As of today, it took me a while to understand why my thighs have been hurting so bad whenever I try to walk.


A pun intended rant, on a parallel universe:
When you are driving on road, there is a reason you should keep an eye on the rear view mirror- so that you know what the bastards are up to behind your back!