Sartorial Matters

Personal taste matters

- Vijai Pant

While getting ready for a social do one fine evening, my better half (‘better’ in every sense) interrupted with, “Dear, you are not going to wear this tonight, are you?”

Now, for all those hubbies whose dress sense, like mine, has nothing got to do with making a fashion statement, it is a strong cue that there’s something wrong with the choice of apparel. At the same time, how can the ‘dear’ husbands so readily agree to what the wives say?

So I reminded her, while struggling to fasten the third button of my vest that only the other day, in one of those hard-to-find ‘rare moments’ of the middle age, she had remarked that the unflamboyant ‘three-piece’ suits my solemn self.

She dismissively agreed that she did compliment me, but came up scathingly with, “It does not mean you pick it up every time we go out.”

Of course, I did not like this intrusion one bit, especially when I had finally succeeded in showing the stubborn third button its rightful place, just above my paunch.

“Now look, darling, four months back, when the Mehtas had that grand celebration of the first birthday of their son, where all the who’s who of the town had come, you had worn this same dress. You see, it would be a needless repetition, when you have a variety to choose from,” she coaxed, while handing me the bandhgala.