Going Native (Part 2)

Today it was Chutney’s turn to get outfitted with Indian clothes. I went shopping with our housekeeper and I thought I’d check what they have for little boys. They had some cute stuff. Apparently, the whole blue-is-for-boys, pink-is-for-girls thing doesn’t work here because the sellers were pushing a bunch of boys clothes in pink (and purple). Now, to be honest, I do like a man who is brave enough to wear a pink or purple shirt but I was not going to get my baby boy a pink Indian outfit. It just didn’t seem right. So, I was looking at some outfits in blue and in white. I was kinda torn between the two colors but ended up getting him an all white kurta (shirt) with white churidar (skinny leg pants). I bought the outfit a little big with the hope that it’ll fit him for a couple of years.

An interesting cultural/linguistic tidbit: The name of the pants comes from the word churi, which means bangle in Hindi. They are called churidar because they are intentionally made longer than the leg, which makes them slouch in folds at the bottom and look like bangles resting on the ankle. Churidar are worn by both men and women. They are very comfortable because they are bias cut so there is some give in the narrow bottom part and the top is usually quite roomy and tightened with a drawstring at the waist. But I digress…

Back to my little man. Doesn’t he look dashing in his new outfit? He was so excited when I put it on him. He usually doesn’t like costume changes but he seemed to really enjoy this outfit. He was giving me all kinds of big grins and totally posing for the camera.