Winter Makeover

Sartorial Parade

Winter, they say, is the time to look your best. Not only do you have to perforce take extra care of your skin and hair, you tend to discard casual clothes and step out looking consciously prim and proper in formal woolen wear.
Nowhere is this more visible than in the Garden every morning – especially with our members. Gone are all those exposed arms and unseemly hairy legs visible with casual, often ill-fitting and un-ironed shorts and T-shirts.

'Razia' Riding Hood

Instead, we are seeing top-to-toe covered bodies in elegant salwar-kammezes, track suits and trousers, lovely sweaters and shawls… even colourful scarves and burqas, all fresh out of trunks, napthalened and colour coordinated.
Mallika Kagzi was to get a special green cardigan made to match her green salwar-kameez for Wednesdays while Ram Shankar Shukla stands out in formal full-sleeved shirt instead of normal T-shirts. Santosh Tyagi boasts of an enviable collection of shawls to go with every outfit and Bijoy Gupta has left behind his shorts for proper full-pants. Ved Prakash Grover is nowadays in stylish jodhpuri pants and matching blue zip-up jacket, Angad Singh is in a sporty light beige contrasting sweater and of course, there’s Kiran Prakash and Jagmohan Papneja, unmatchable in their sartorial tastes.
Still, two people stand out: One, Razia Khan who showed up today like a ‘Red Riding Hood in white cardigan’ (her shoes were also red!); and two, Shekhawat looking unusually dapper in a classic steel grey sleeveless jacket with well nuanced T-shirt and track pants. Whether all this is on purpose or not, it speaks volumes of the kind of application that goes into winter wear and more importantly, how everybody is now looking younger.
A couple of honorable exceptions though: Bose Babu and Srichand Arora. Both are beyond redemption as they insist on sticking to shorts and T-shirts in this weather – come hail or high water. Even the Garden’s notorious bumble mosquitoes have failed to reform them!
Kiran Prakash:
Whatever be the attire or season, two things that everybody carries is a smile and the zeal on their faces. I do not know what it means, but I checked my iPad at least 10 times between 4 pm and 7 pm for today's post. And then I sent a message around 7.45 pm. Itna toh mai apne girlfriend ke liye bhi kabhi nahi tarpa tha!
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
It is good to be fastidious not only with apparel, but also with your habits. However, as senior citizens and keeping in view the weather condition, it is better to be over-clothed rather than look jazzy and later fill the pockets of doctors. This does not mean that one should remain cozy in bed. We should take our exercises seriously and keep dementia away.