I have always wondered at the diversity of India. Have travelled a lot in my teens and early 20's. The journey from lush green Kerala, to the buzzing national capital in Kerala Express, through the dry, barren Tamil Nadu, the black soils of the western and central India, through the mountaineous terrain covered with distant forts in Madhya Pradesh, a glimpse of the majestic Taj at a distance in Agra - the 42 hour trip which I made at least twice an year during college days was an excercise in education.
The traditional dresses of people from various States have attracted me. Remember this was a quarter of a century ago, unlike today where the dresses across the country have become more standardised. Those days one can hardly see a churidhar wearing girl in Tamil Nadu or Kerala.
One thing that struck me was how Malayalis prefered white coloured dresses, as depicted by their fondness for mundu set (for ladies), mundu/shirt (for gents) while the Rajastanis wore multicoloured dresses and still more 'colourful' turbans. The Rajastani dress worn by ladies is a riot of colours ( I presume all the Indian film makers who shoot song/dance sequences have been inspired by the Rajastan dress sense ). The contrast is striking.
One reason could be that Kerala has been blessed with so much natural beauty of various hues and shades- from the dark green trees, to the light green paddy fields, to the red hebiscus flower, to the yellow konnappoo, to the colourful dahlias, to the blue sea, to the blue/greyish sky. Hence people living there must have chosen to wear plain white dress as a contrast to the colours around them to make them stand out.
In the case of Rajastan, the nature is dreary- miles and miles of white sand merging with a blue sky with only splattering of while clouds. It could be why the people decided to add some colour to an otherwise dreary canvass by wearing multi-coloured dresses.
Why travel abroad when you need a life time to discover the diversity of our own country and its wonderful people.
