THESHIRT
Dear friends, Today morning I rearranged myshirts in the almirah. The arrangement order was new and liking, new andrecently purchased. Old shirts are disposed to the Ashram nearby. The new likings are the ones whichrequire practically no ironing. Nostalgic memories of the TERELENE shirt of1964’ came to me which required no ironing. I thought today’s posting can be about shirts, with nostalgic memories. Nothinginformative in this posting. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 18-07-2021. 1. Cotton white pants, white shirt and tie. When I came to Chennai in the end of1964, the office going people had mostly white cotton pant, white cotton shirtand most wearing shoe. I could see along the first line beach, at 200 metersdistance boot polishing people. People wearing other foot wear likeHawaii, chappals, sandak etc were considered a 2nd grade unless theywere aged. Very few officials I have seenwearing dhoti, this included mudaliars, pillais, and iyers on those days. Of coursethere were iyers wearing Panchagachham in Chennai, but were very few. Tie was considered as a status inthe office. To say OFFICERS USED TO WEAR THE TIE especially the high ranking. Thetie indicated his grade. Others used towear tie while going for parties etc. Male staff working in SBI in thefirst line beach could be seen only wearing white pants. Shirt and tie. My office was next to it –The GPO. For seeing a girl for marriage, the boys went wearing shirtstucked in to pants and wearing tie. Colour pants and shirts wereworn by many. Or if casual wear was worn in suchan occasion, surely the photograph given to the girl’s side would be the onewith tie. I have the photograph with tie given in 1969 for my marriage stillwith me. 51 years old photograph inblack and white. 2 I have a terlin shirt. A type of shirting called terlinappeared in 1964. The cloth was mostly plain in different colours. The added advantages of the shirting were 1.It could be washed easily and got dried quickly. From washed shirts water wouldbe found dripping much more quickly.Water would not stick to cloth. 2. Dirt would go easily and third and most important - The cloth did notrequire ironing- a half truth actually. It required ironing after three or four washes is thecorrect version. The cost was slightly prohibitive.But people were crazy to have at least ONE. It was a fashion to wear terlin shirts especially for youngsters andmiddle aged. People used to wear one or two terlin shirts alternatively. Somehad 4-5 Terlin shirts . A person havinga terlin shirt was looked smarter thanone with costly new cotton shirt!!! It required ironing with lesstemperature after two or three washes.Wrinkles would be there, especially inthe back but were less. Ironing gave asmart look to the shirt and wearer. Terlin shirt was given only for drywashing to Dhobi. He only knew what was “dry washing” on those days. Rather than full sleeve people used to havehalf sleeve terlin shirts. Terlin shirts were available in readymade shopsalso. There were different qualities of terlin in due course. However goodterlin was very costly later also. Three prominent colours were light yellow,light blue and pure white. Pure white was liked more by the middle aged andoffice goers. During that period I have spend alot of money on terlin shirts. The period of terlin remained unshaken for about5-7 years. Then came the Saturn period for him from his own brother called TERECOTTON who had fast growth. 3. Brother gets immediate popularity and push down elder brotherTerlin. A mixing of cotton with terlin was Teri- cotton. Tere cotton came in different percentage, most with 60% terlin and 40% cotton. Teri-cotton had many more added advantage as felt in due course. Teri-cotton was available in textile shopseven by 1967’s. But it was a moving cloth, but not to the extent of terlin. For some time Terlin went alongwith Teri-cotton. Gradually terlin was pushed back and started to have hisposition in the upper shelves of the show rooms. LOWER SHELVES OCCUPIEDTERECOTTON. This was about 1972’s. 4 Tericotton. Tericotton came in different shadesand designs, it had mixed qualities of terlin and cotton. Terlin used to givesweating, having least cotton. Terecotton compensated it. For reasons best known, fame started with terecottonsuddenly than gradually. Terecotton gave slightly more appearance since like Terlin it was notslippery and it did not come out while tucking in to the pants. Probably itcould be due to tucking people, terlin lost more popularity. Thosewearing terlin were asked- have you not changed to terecotton? 5. shirt pockets. In either slack or full sleeve, asystem of having innerpocket came. Some used to have pockets on either side in the front, somewith a flap cover over the pocket for protection etc. The inner pocket stillcontinues now also and it has some advantage. I have most of the shirts withinner pockets if got stitched whether I use it or not. 6 Polyester shirts. Even while knowing the experienceof his brother Terlin, earlier polyester shirts had no cotton mixing. There wasa push back to Tere cotton. This was during 1978’s. Polyester had all thequalities of terlin; the fibre was different, required still less ironing. After some time polyester blendcotton started to appear, with varying percentage. Pure polyester gotdisappeared. Terecotton and polyestercotton started holding the market 7. Readymade shirts. Readymade shirts started gettingmore popularity with many designs. By the time. They were costly, but with increase in financial status, could make manyafford. The period of white shirts gotpractically disappeared with office goers along with terlin itself. 8 Slack shirts, full shirts, wearing any way. The tucking in of full shirt in topant became a point of option. Many started to wear full shirt outside pant.With full sleeve, folding in hands has become common with many. Most important,the tie lost its priority. By 1990’s any type of wearing becamecommon. Most important-Officers or staff- All started to wear Cherippu(Simple Foot ware). Shoe lost its oldpriority. Another thing- Hawaii sandalsbecame BATHROOM OR HOME WEAR. We cannot see even workers wearingHawai while working now. Hawai lost itspriority to home wear. Those having problems with Foot used to wear hawai. 9. The T shirt. The T shirt is knitted and readymade.The fibre is blends or cotton. T shirtscome with collar, front buttons, with pocket or without pocket. T shirt wasfirst Luxury and casual wear when appeared by 1988’s. People used to bring fromforeign countries and compliment. It was common to ask to get a T shirt fromforeign country. However T shirts still remained casualwear, officers or officials did not use in office. Cost varies from 500 to 4000 today depend oncompany and brand. Update- Now we can see elders and youngsters wearing T shirt commonly with half pants everywhere. Manyin the age group of 70-85 wear half pant commonly in place of dhoti forconvenience everywhere. Dhoti is only in shelves. Even for functions many come in half pants 10. Present senerio Having custom tailoring withRaymonds etc, those require specific dimensions stitch shirts with them. Forfull shirt or half sleeve, side curving has become optional. Raymonds first offer polyester blend cotton. Cotton has become luxury andpriced at sky level. Peoplelike stripes or checks than designs. Ready-mades introduce many designsof shirts. Even in big show rooms, there are two sections, BRANDED AND NOT BRANDED. Branded shirts cost above 2500-00.Not branded is available from 1000-00. But in streets readymade shirtsavailable from Rs 150-00 on-wards Many have started liking cotton orcotton blend (70% cotton) shirtings. Most change shirts daily. Persons having lessthan a dozen shirts are rare. This includes even workers. Nowadays tearing of shirt is notthere with blends. Hence maximum about a year most youngsters discard old oneswith changing fashions. Elders may be using for another one more year. Nothing can be done with old onesit finds a place in waste box rolled in paper unless some ashram collect it. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/446764602.208718.1626600686438%40mail.yahoo.com.
