Sorry, No Sarees, Please!

Shashi Tharoor lamented the demise of the ubiquitous saree from the cupboards of Indian women in a national daily last Sunday. And, appealed earnestly to Indian women to not let this ancient mark of our civilization die a quick death. One of the main reasons as one of his respondendents mentioned against saree was "try and catch a bus in a saree" - indicating the non-functional side of the attire and hinting that with women increasingly getting out of homes and into workplaces with all the attendant problems, sarees are best left to the moths in cupboards.
Another man, perhaps not as global as Tharoor, but certainly representing the best of Indian tradition in laughter, Raju Srivastava, has a more serious lament. In a recent episode of "The Great Indian Laughter CHallenge", Raju had this mock conversation between the jeans and the top.
Jeans: I seem to be going down and down and further away from you my friend
Top: Yes, mah dahling! I too seem to be moving up and up and away from you. It seems we shall only get further and further away from each other and never be able to meet in this life.

I am not here to moralise about what women should wear or not wear. Frankly I believe one should wear what one is comfortable in and what one can carry off confidently. Of course, within the larger societial norms in mind. In fact, it is a remarkable sign of our social progress that most urban women [I do not mean just the 8 top cities, but even smaller towns] are condifently wearing cothes which not only their mothers but even their elder sisters would have cringed at. Critics would call this a dubious sign of progress but they would forget that such small changes are harbingers of larger changes in society. Remember those days when you went out and bought cigerattes for your girlfriend who was a smoker but did not want to go to shops to buy the stuff and people who knew you slightly wondering why you - a non-smoker- were buying cigarettes? Gone are those days now, if you were to attend a large confenrence today on any of the new economy sectors, you would find that women lead the pack of smokers during breaks... and what more in most cities you can see women smoking in restaurants, pubs and other places. if that is not progress, I wonder what it...
But of course, there is always a twist to my tales.... and in case of women's smoking habits and sartorial tastes, I have two stories to narrate from rural India which so far as women empowerment goes, has been the trend setter since times immemorial.
The first story was told to me by my sociology teacher Dr Particia Oberoi an Australian national who had moved to India at a very young age marrying Prof Oberoi. When Pat moved to India in the early 60s folks back home warned her that she would not get any skirts in India and she should pack as many of those as possible. On reaching India on her first visit to rural Rajasthan she found much to her shock and pleasure, that women in those parts of India wore only skirts and very pretty ones at that....
The second story is from small town Bihar where I spent my childhood. My friend, all of 11 years used to frequently buy bidis and we knew he was not a smoker. He used to buy it for his own and our neighbourhood chachi [who was completely illiterate but married to to the Principal of the local college and the President of the District Congress Committee, th emuch educated, modern and revered Prof Singh...
Didn't I tell you earlier more things change more they remain the same