Dear Renu,
Decent or Indecent is a relative opinion, perception. The kerala woman dress is perceived decent in kerala. It is common and hence men in kerala are not sensationalized by that costume. elsewhere it is not so though.
A korean friend of mine, a gent, stated that the saree worn by indian women makes them look glamorous, coz it exposes the hip, the curve. however women wearing a skirt exposing the legs below the knee do not look glamorous for koreans coz it is common.
A saree clad woman does not attract men in india coz it is a common sight/scene in india.
when south indian women started wearing churidar during the late seventies, they were attracting men's eyes and drawing attention, creating sensation coz it was uncommon then. however now it is common and a churidar clad woman no longer attracts.
in the indian metros, western dress has become common and hence any gent who is raised in a metro is never sensationalized by any woman wearing a western or indian dress.
being sensationalized is all a matter of perception.
yesudass ought to change his perception.
it has become a trend and fashion to resort to the term 'indian culture' as reason for pointing out apparent error in costume/dressing. hardly anyone in this forum can specify what is indian culture especially when it comes to dress. indian men cannot expect every woman to wear only a saree. even in saree/blouse combination, numerous permutations and combinations have evolved. one can debate on whether a particular combination is acceptable or not and there can never be an end to a series of debates on the topic.
to evolve is culture, even in dressing.
we dress for the occasion and for comfort. simple rule is formal dress on a formal occasion and informal dress on an informal occasion. it is comfortable for anyone to wear jeans while journeying. there cannot be a woman's jean or men's jean as much as there is no woman's food or gent's food.
A jean and sleeveless combination for women is acceptable even in indian churches, while yet the bible explicitly exhorts women to dress modestly, cover their heads and be shamefaced. however the combination is understandably unacceptable in hindu temples while yet hinduism does not prescribe any dress-code while visiting temples.
my relatives who work in IBM, DELL, HP, APPLE, CISCO. AT&T etc wear Jeans-Tshirt for office on all days of the week, coz these organizations have a liberal dress-code. however some costumes are forbidden though. most of the foreign organizations, esp IT and BT, operating in india have a liberal dress code with a boundary though. some indian IT cos prescribe formals on mondays and tuesdays, partly formal on other days and liberal on weekends.
when muslim gents wear lungi to mosque for worship, hindu men avoid lungi while visiting temples. here again it is a matter of mindset which men in this forum conveniently forget or diplomatically avoid discussing about.
when my husband sported a costume which resembles the ISKCONites, an orange colored dhoti and kurta, for the simple reason he relishes it, my iyengar relatives raised objection saying it is a costume which is a belonging of only hindu saints. for me it is an absurd explanation for a baseless, unreasonable objection. understandably my iyengar relatives have had their minds programmed and conditions and set to assume that the orange colored combination is only for hindu saints.
to sum it all up, this controversy regarding dress/costumes will never end until the indian men and women change their perception, mindset, break out of their shell, out of their programmed and conditioned mind.
