Was reading the front page today article "Cell Phone ban comes into force" from Hindu this afternoon during lunch. The article mentioned the new restriction posed by Anna University and on other engineering colleges where a ban on the use of camera phones comes along with a dress code for all its engg students.Although, the TADA on cell phones seems to be accepted without much hungama, the policy against dress code restriction has been met with strong resistance from the student forces, especially the girls. The dress code states that students should not wear jeans, t-shirts, skirts or sleeveless and tight-fitting outfits and enjoined them to dress conservatively.
I pulled this out of the St.Joseph's engineering college's website:
Dress:
Boys : All students in the campus should be neatly dressed. All boy students are expected to wear self - coloured pants with their shirts neatly tucked in and wear tie. They should wear shoes only. Jeans and T-shirts are strictly not allowed. Slippers will not be permitted. Students should not have long hair and beard.
Girls : All girl students should wear saree or churidhar with dhupata. Slippers will not be permitted. Slit in the Churidhar should not be more than 10 inches above the knee level. Students should not bleach their hair.
Although, this is not new info for many of us who have gone to similar institutions back home, i can't help wondering about the cultural "shift" that Chennaites are going through. What with the new Globus, LifeStyles and several other trendy fashion shops in malls coming up, the women, especially the younger generation of Chennai have been exposed to boot-cut jeans, suspender tops and so on. Every brand name available here in the US is now found there. The happy medium is the existing "short kurtha aka parallels" that come as a mix of the pant and salwar. Sarees have become a classified wear meant to be worn only for college farewells and weddings. The poor churidhars and salwars are like struggling middle class that keep wanting to be categorized as modern outfits, but sadly, still remain as traditional attire.
In essence, is this protest on dress code for the younger generation justified???
Would be interested in hearing a variety of comments.........
5 comments:
Nice post at right time, Mitr.. I thought only Anna Univ. had the dress code and had a good laugh telling about it to my friends from other states here.. nowhere else there seems to be anything of this sort.. so, why only in Tamilnadu? I certainly dont encourage this.. not only from the basic rights point of view but also comfort..
Chennai and most part of TN are damn hot.. the coolest and best thing to wear is t-shirt.. whats wrong with that?
They can restrict it for those 8 hours of college.. how about the rest of the day? More these kinds of stupid restrictions, more the young minds would think of getting pleasure breaking them...
All these rules merely reflect our Tamilian terribly over-conservative mentality.. Ninaikka ninaikka aathirama varudhu..
stupid rules!. i myself am a product of sathyabama and i hated these kinds of restrictions. why prevent people's freedom?.
As GP said, students would simply revert to their favorite dresses once the college is over.
some conservatism indeed!.
stupid rules, esp no beard for biys, appo enna madri beard having pasanga will have to shave, cha, the only reason i have a beard is cause i am tooo lazy to shave, why dont these guys understand tat.
gp:thanks for the positive thoughts. There have been many times in life after coming to the US, when i wish that a lot of tamililian conservatism would change for the positive well-being of the society, its just sad that we "ape" the west in cell phone usage,dating etc, but fail to take note of the positive aspects of the west.
ttg:sathyabama va- i have many friends from that college and know exactly how the "jail" system works...
murali:its unfair when engg students are singled out, as Arts college girls have a lot more freedom in what they can wear. I guess its bcos many Arts College are primarily "all girls" unlike engg colleges.
vatsan:too bad that these folks are wasting their time, energy and effort in forcing these kinda rules, when they could do more productive things to improve the quality and standard of education.
What Nonsense is this...Who cares about dress...etc... People have lost focus...College is for getting education and the college should concentrate on that. It should not care about trivial things like what a girl wears, how the boys look etc.
Moreover the Jeppiar group of Insitutions are Jails in Hell... They have rules like Boys and Girls should not talk...All Staff should wear badges..
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