A Story of the Tie and the Pants

Soumya walks down the memory lane and tells us about his uncle and himself, who weren’t dressed very well. An exclusive for Different Truths.

I had an uncle, a brilliant man with a spectacular academic record, who was a passionate painter and traveller, but very laid-back career wise, working in an unassuming position in some government department.

He left for work every day in an untucked half sleeve shirt and crumpled cotton trousers.

Nattily Dressed

My father, on the other hand, his junior from the same engineering college, worked for a multinational corporation and left for work in a car driven by a liveried chauffeur, nattily dressed in suit and tie.

My school uniform too involved tucked shirt and tie, but my sartorial elegance was closer to my uncle’s, and my shirt was rarely tucked and my tie was usually inkstainened and loosely tied somewhere below my left ear.

For this lapse I was frequently chastised by my teachers, but my shirt and tie refused to conform to the norms.

In fact, I once met an ex-class teacher, who on seeing me remarked, “I’d know Soumya anywhere. Shirts still untucked and ties still askew “

Style Statement

Incidentally, I too worked in the government sector. And a natty boss called my style statement, the Delbert.

Coming back to the story…

Living in constant dread of being found short on my dress code, I wondered how my uncle got away with it.

So, I asked him, “Doesn’t your miss scold you when you don’t wear your tie?”

He replied, “No, in my office they don’t scold you even if you don’t wear pants. Nangta hoye geleo kichu bolbe na.”

The vision of a lot of grown ups working in an office without pants was quite surreal and remained etched in my young mind well into adulthood, even when I worked in a similar environment.

Visual by Different Truths