A belt for the sari?

Harjeet Ahluwalia

The world will soon have to reconcile itself to either spending more on acquiring chauffeurs, or playing chauffeur to the female members in their company whenever they drive. For from October 2002 onwards, the Supreme Court order making wearing of safety belts compulsory for both front and back seat occupants will take effect.

More and more sulking women — fat, thin, modern, old-fashioned — will prefer to turn out in slinky synthetic clothes for want of proper seat belts that do not crush their crisp cottons and expensive silks.
That is what the Supreme Court order will do to the carloads of female drivers and passengers. No complaint on the safety front, for the move is desperately needed on Indian roads, where ever-faster cars are choking the roads and slowing down the average speed to crawl-yet-hit levels.

My plaint in this instance is against carmakers — when every item that is copied from overseas markets is customised to Indian needs, why did the car companies never care to study the graceful apparel adorning Indian women? I, for one, cannot dream of entering an office or going to a party in a sari that declares loudly where my seat belt fastened me securely as I drove there!

Or could it be that textile units have covertly joined hands with the auto industry to boost their costly, uncrushable cotton casuals? Surely no woman with a fondness for the traditional five-feet-long wrap-around would happily swap it for a crease-resistant but assembly-line production? Agreed that synthetic material is “cheap and best” for day-to-day wear when it is not too hot or too cold. The comfort that we draw from cool cottons in the summer and warm silks in bone-chilling winter, however, cannot be replicated by smart prints or enticing colours in polyester.

Far-fetched as this may seem, the handloom industry may suffer enormously too. There are as many takers for the humbler, cheaper variety of handloom saris as there are for the upmarket, exclusive ones. Although it is not just saris which will be affected. For the fashion-conscious, the hip, young circles as well as in designer wear, it’s traditional Indian fabrics which rule — all equally prone to tell-tale creases.

The police may make a good haul from fines as obstinate women insist on breaking the law, but it cannot last forever. There’s still no way the curtains will come down on the sari, but one thing’s for sure: if the car industry does not act fast on evolving a sari-friendly seat belt for lady drivers and passengers, there’s no knowing which way the dice of womanly wrath could fall!