War of words on wardrobe

A great war of words has ensued among celebrated Bong intellectuals as well as the not-so-celebrated struggling Bong intellectuals, the latter constituting a major chunk of the readership of primary Bengali tabloids err… newspapers, about the wardrobe of a certain female school teacher employed in a suburban Kolkata girl’s school. So what has caused this huge hullabaloo? This pretty young thing of a teacher, Kasturi Sen, who hails from Golfgreen, one of the trendiest uptown areas of the City of Joy, prefers to wear a salwar suit to school rather than going about the complicated business of draping a seven yard saree with its multiple pleats. My God can you believe that?! A salwar suit, that too in a girl’s school! Won’t such provocative dressing be detrimental to impressionable minds of young girl students who are yet to figure out their sexual orientation conclusively? For my money it might just tickle their lesbian instincts. Of even greater concern is how such inappropriate dressing would cater to the horny fantasies of Ramdin the sweeper, who by the way is the only male employee in the entire institution.

No wonder thus that the head-mistress has taken serious offence to this intolerable outrage from a newbie teacher half her age. After all it’s about upholding the ethical standards of the school and what single thing represents it more conspicuously than white saree with thin green border (see picture below)? It was never a personal thing for the veteran head-mistress. No doubt she was forced to involve herself in a verbal catfight with Kasturi and personally shut the doors of the Teachers’ Room on the latter’s face when she went to sign the attendance register. However it would be a childish thing to say she took it personally.

Anyway, this incident has grown a few arms and legs since. Seems everybody starting from the School Education Minister of West Bengal to the occasional roadside eve-teaser – who of course shares the minister’s political affiliation – is reflecting upon the subtle moral and cultural implications that this debate holds for society at large. The girls in the school are of divided opinion – the ninth graders are shouting all in favor of their ‘bold’ teacher whereas the seventh-graders are siding with their head-mistress. That shows how two more years of cramming schoolbooks puts one at an advantage in terms of intelligence. Very recently a section of the parents staged a noisy protest in front of the school for they suspect dirty lobby politics to be the only reason behind this fiasco.

This country doesn’t cease to amaze. When the sensational Riya and Rimi Sens of Youngistan are opening our eyes to aestheticism in skimpiness, one Kasturi Sen finds herself in the middle of a storm for wearing to work something that makes her feel comfortable.

As the school authorities are scratching their heads over the titillation properties of a salwar kameez and a saree I believe they should consult an expert on such matters like Hugh Hefner, founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises. However from my little experience with his products I really doubt either of these desi outfits would fit into Mr. Hefner’s idea of a naughty dress for a female school teacher!