Dear Follower,
Hello. I took a break
yesterday. Although for me personally there is no difference between a weekday
and weekend, yet in deference to the wishes of family members around, I decided
to skip and enjoy the break. The days are warming up and I would be spending
some time outside to tend to the garden. As of now, I have occupied a lot of
space in our living room with dozens of pots ready with early growth of dahlia,
other flower, cucumber, knol khol, tomatoes and chilli plants It is the
graciousness of the family members that they are tolerating my activities. In
another four weeks all plants would be either gifted or sown outside. Hopefully I may not take a break from blogging due to my gardening activities.
I waded into the political
scene in the last blog. As we go on, you will see me going deeper on that. In
fact all bhattas are the greatest politicians on the face of the world. It is
another thing that that we have political analysis and solution for the entire
world but not any meaningful ones for ourselves and our community. It would be
interesting to know what the chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang thought about us
in the year 631 AD when he visited the Kashmir valley. He is reported to
have remarked, " They are volatile and timid; they are good looking but
deceitful. They are fond of learning and follow both Buddhism and Hinduism"
Not much seems to have changed all these centuries.
Today I would however touch the social aspect. Kashmiri pandit men folk would formally dress with a turban on the head, pheran worn over a shirt and waist coat, and skin tight pajamas. The shoe would be called a "peazaar". The pheran fabric would usually be pashmina cloth, turban called "saafa" would be muslin and the pajamas of cotton fabric. In winter, a Pashmina or Raffal blanket called "dussa" would be worn over the pheran. The pyjama fabric would be some thick cloth. We children would wear a woolen fabric pheran. There would be a white cloth pheran (called "posch" in the local language ) worn under the woolen fabric pheran to provide proper antidote and protection against cold. However poorer among the Hindu population would wear a "Falalan cloth" pheran in place of the woolen pheran. (Myself and my brothers always wore a "Falalan Cloth Pheran") No saafa for the children. As time moved on, around 1940, most menfolk had started discarding pheran and would wear a coat for going to work. Saafa also slowly gave way to a cap and then no cap at all. Our father wore upto his last days. Muslims also would wear pheran, saafa etc. Only difference would be that Hindu saafa would be saffron, pink coloured, those of muslims would be white.
All ladies also used to wear pheran, head dress called taranga, and a loongi tied over the pheran around waist. I will post a picture in the near future to give you an idea. I have seen my mother in this dress when I was a child. Later this got changed to saree of the present day. There was a Kashmiri Pandit leader name Kashaf Bandu, who impressed on the community to change from pheran to saree for the ladies to bring them on the same dress code as other Hindu ladies in the rest of the country. Muslim ladies continued to wear pheran much longer than the Hindu ladies. There was a big difference between the Pheran worn by the Hindus and Muslims. For Hindu men, the pheran would be long - about three inches above the ankles, while for Muslim men it would be about six inches above the ankles. Also in Hindu pheran, there would be a stitched fold (called "laadh" in local language) in the pheran. (When a person would grow in height, the stitching would get removed to make the pheran longer) However the muslim pheran would not have a "laadh" . The Hindu ladies pheran would be long enough to touch a little lower than the ankles. There would be "laadh" too as in men's pheran. The muslim ladies pheran would be higher up to cover upto knees. There would be no "laadh" for them. On very formal occasions and marriage functions, the elder muslim ladies would wear an elaborate headdress called "Kasaab" The younger ones would tie a cloth over their head and this would be called "poosch.
The use of Burqa among ladies was not widespread for day to day living for muslim ladies. The shalwar kameez fashion was not there in 1940's and 1950's. It got introduced with the introduction of education among ladies.
It is now time to say bye.
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