Strut!

Finally!

Today, our group was introduced to different sides of India at a special (read: amazing) program put on for us by the students of St. Joseph’s College in Hyderabad, a Sparknotes of Indian culture that showcased everything from music to dance to– you guessed it– fashion. At long last, today I got to experience a small taste of one of my greatest passions (as anyone who knows me can attest), maybe the one aspect of my “normal” life I’ve missed the most in India: clothes!

After seven weeks without Elle or Cosmo, I was completely enraptured by the intricate outfits modeled before us. Dresses from Rajistan, Tamilnadu, Goa… each was more incredible than the next: beautiful fabrics ornately embroidered and covered in pearls and beading are kind of my thing. And each of the outfits were so different! The Tamil guy wore an awesome turban, the Hyderabad models were covered in sequins and glimmer, the Kashmiri girl sported a gorgeous cap that I’m fully determined to get my hands on.

But I think what struck me most about the presentation wasn’t the complexity of the the designs, but the differences between them. Each outfit was entirely independent of the others, with a feel and culture all its own. Then it struck me– not while scarfing down various samples of Indian cuisine, not while chatting with a young mother on the train in Vizag, not while haggling around the bazaars, but here, today, at a fashion show– that no matter what we’ve done, no matter how hard we’ve tried or how much we’ve seen, we haven’t even scratched the surface of this diverse and highly mutable culture.

If a total outsider spent two months living and working in New York, with maybe a weekend’s excursion to Boston, he or she could have a pretty good idea of American culture. If a Canadian enthusiast (come on, I know you’re out there) chilled in Toronto and Montreal for a while, he would’ve had a pretty immersive Canadian experience (as long as no less than half his time was spent in a hockey rink). But I don’t think the same is true for India. True, it’s still one country, and there are some similarities– sarees, spice, spirituality– but the clothing styles vary dramatically from one state to the next, Manoj can tell instantly whether our food is North Indian or South, Hindus from different areas of India even worship different deities!

To quote the philosopher Gaga, “Fashion… I can be anyone you want me to be.” For a moment, the models were different people: not Hyderabadi girls in brocade, but Bengali girls with elaborate jewelry, Tamils in gorgeous multicoloured sarees. For the non-Indians among us, I think today was really our first, maybe only, chance to experience even part of the vastly complex amalgamation that really defines modern India.