242 What is common between Allen Solly Dressing and vivEkAnanda Dressing?

What is common between Allen Solly and swAmi vivEkAnanda? It is coppery saffron. It is Hot Fridays.

DESIGNATIONS ARE FORGOTTEN ON A FRIDAY

---

DRESS UP!

HOT FRIDAYS

Allen Solly

Thus advertises a readymade garment marketer.

We then have a lady (model) walking between two lads. The lady has coppery-red hair. She is dressed in matching robes, with a well-tucked dark saffron pants, a dark saffron coat covering her shoulder and hands. Her blouse, though white in background, has saffron flowery-design. There is an air of semi-flamboyance, probably by the striking domination of coppery-saffron color.

The accompanying men are dressed in suits, of in gray and a sort of navy blue. But the "saffron color" matching with the pants of the lady, has not been left out. The modelling gentleman on the right of the model-lady, wore a conspicuous shirt with large saffron checks. The modelling on the gentleman on her left, wore a saffron tie, not to be left out in a matching color.

The advertisement images and the text-copy are, by and large, quite captivating and are in line with the state-of-art craft of the 21st Century Advertising.

"Designations are forgotten on a Friday" refers to an office environment, where on working days other than Fridays, designations might have to some extent determined and divided the dressing behaviors of the staff. We have an indication that the 21st Century Offices and staff, attach great importance to dressing.

---

We shall now go back to the end-19th Century years of United States and Swami vivEkAnanda. Swamiji wrote to Alasinga from Metclaff, Mass. on 20.8.1893:

From this village I am going to Boston tomorrow. I am going to speak at a big Ladies' Club here, which is helping Ramabai. I must first go and buy some clothing in Boston. If I am to live longer here, my quaint dress will not do. People gather by hundreds in the streets to see me. So what I want is to dress myself in a long black coat, and keep a red robe and turban to wear when I lecture. This is what the ladies advise me to do, and they are the rulers here, and I must have their sympathy. Before you get this letter my money would come down to somewhat about £70 of £60. So try your best to send some money. It is necessary to remain here for some time to have any influence here.

In the same letter quote:

"...Just now I have been to the tailor and ordered some winter clothings, and that would cost at least Rs. 300 and up. And still it would not be good clothes, only decent. Ladies here are very particular about a man's dress, and they are the power in this country...."

ybrems - primary By the 1893 price levels, a sum of Rs. 300 and up must have been very high for vivEkAnanda's fancy and alasinga's back (because he had to send the money to vivEkAnanda). Poor alasinga had to bear this burden, because he had to enable vivEkAnanda to have influence with the American big ladies, who advise him to wear what and win their sympathies. alasinga should save vivEkAnanda from looking queer.
Can't a monk have courage to face crowds? Ans: An ascetic or monk should not be afraid of looking queer or unnatural. Whatever way the onlookers may see him or mock at him, a true ascetic will not take their actions and reactions into cognizance.
It is worth quoting bhartruhari here, the great poet of the first millennium India gave birth to:

Sanskrit: camd`aaloo kim ayam? dvijaatir athavaa s`uudroo atha? kim taapasaha?

kim vaa tattva viveeka pees`ala matir yogiis`varaha koo api kim?

iti utpanna vikalpa jalpa mukharair aabhaashyamaan`aa janair

na kruddhaupathi naiva tusht`a manasoo yaanti svayam yoginaha .96

English: Those who see the ascetic on the path, will be wondering who this person is! Is he an outcast? Is he a Priest? Is he of a low caste? A person doing penance? A scholarly saint who can distinguish between strains of principles of philosophy? Who ever he is? The passersby will be estimating and commenting about him. But the ascetic himself will not get irritated and in a contented and serine mode he proceeds. (vairAgya Satakam verse No. 96.)

For reading vairagya satakam of bhartrihari: vairagyasatakam.blogspot.com.

While Allensolly wants people to have a HOT FRIDAY, vivEkAnanda wanted to have "Hot TIME IN THIS OLD TOWN" (the rage of Chicago of those days).

ybrems - secondary What is "decent" ? What is "good" ? These are all abstract adjectives. They neither have definitions. Nor do they have any meaning. They should not have any meaning, more so for "monks".

ybrems - tertiary I wanted to avoid my mania with this vivEkAnanda blog. The Governments (plural because it includes State Governments and the Union Government) have prevented me from my self-cure, by going ahead spending Rs. 100 billion (approx. $2 billion) on the bashes of Swami vivEkAnanda's 150th Day Celebrations. Most of the amounts are spent on organising seminars, sending decorated chariots, All-India trains and not on serving poor, the avowed objective of rAmakrishNa-vivEkAnanda cult or heritage. The gujarAt Chief Minister narEndra mODi has tried even to win elections on a vivEkAnanda platform.

And this is the same Nation which expects to mobilise a trillion dollars foreign investments, to develop infrastructure sector.
How can a Nation, which has its citizens spending thousands of bucks on DRESSING UP think of domestic investments? The citizens who spend lavishly on gold and diamong jewelleries, luxury homes, great cars, get their bucks not from any genuine production activity, but from speculative profits in real estate, commodity trading, share and derivative trading. Genuine growth cannot take place in India today. The sluggishness in manufacturing sector growth rate is mainly because of the hazards associated with making goods. The wreckless growth in Indian population pushes up demand for subsistence goods (necessities), migration to urban areas, large-scale conversion of agricultural lands into speculative plots used neither for construction nor for agriculture.

Unbriddled urban expansion gives raise to speculative business opportunities in real estate and commodities, helping a few hundred speculators to make undeserving millions. Even bank loans extended for ostensibly manufacturing and business purposes are diverted to speculative investments. This illegitimate income and wealth creates the demand for mansions, luxury cars, jewellery, expensive dresses, lavish wedding events, mals and supermarkets, and crazy sports like cricket. Why Walmart is so hungry to enter Indian Cities, at least through their indian crony proxies?

It is not the question of vivEkAnanda's coats or Allen Solly's Dressup banger ads. It is: We Indians have to change a lot!