Cool casual, or too

casual?

Is it just the clothes or a state of mind that define your attitude to the world?

By AMIT DUTT

Afew days ago, my wife and I were invited to casually dine at a friend’s place.

“Come over,” she said. “Nothing too formal, we will just have a lazy Saturday night.” has become so relaxed that casual at the workplace to many, means what you would wear around the house on a Sunday morning. In the last 16 years of working in big corporations and small businesses, I’ve seen my co-workers dressed in torn trackies and socks, singlets with an open view of cleavage and stomach, to the extent of intimate garments and athletic wear suitable for a gym. While at some places the trend has been corrected, at others, the risk to rectify it has been too great in the name of political correctness.

On the dot, defying the IST, we arrived at her place with a nice bottle of red in hand. Her husband opened the door, welcoming us.

“We didn’t want to make it too formal, so we invited no one else,” he said, making sure we knew there was no one else for company.

I strongly believe that what you wear reflects your state of mind.

As we entered the living area, there sat his wife in lazy, crumpled pyjamas, plastic slippers, and a singlet. “Just wanted to make it a casual evening,” she said, justifying her appearance. Looking at her I certainly did feel overdressed in my jeans and t-shirt. The evening went well. Takeaway, a few drinks and the local gossip. Casual, it was. In fact, it dropped to the nadir of casualness.

Sitting there started an interesting thought process in my mind. Have we become too casual, and when is casualness too casual? And has this casualness crept into all spheres of our lives? Casual food, friendship, sex, affair, drink, smoke and the list goes on… Have we taken the very word ‘casually’ too seriously?

I am by no means a connoisseur of fashion and dressing up. But I do strongly believe that what you wear reflects your state of mind in general. A pair of jeans may scream casualness, pyjamas and singlets don’t.

•

•

*

As the workplace is a major part of our life today, our attitude there flows freely to our weekend life too. The ‘casual’ attitude is no different from the ‘use and throw’ attitude we have developed. When it’s cheaper to replace, why bother repairing or fixing. Electronics, computers, lawn mowers or relationships, the mindset is, it’s easy to get a new one, why fix the old one. Casualness driven to the extent today screams, I don’t give a damn in any sphere of my life. And walking down the street, it shows.

Don’t get me wrong. I am, by all means, for making our lives easy and relaxed. In fact after wearing suits for 16 years of my corporate life, I am thoroughly enjoying the jeans and polo t-shirt I now wear to work. The issue is more than clothesdeep. Clothing is the only visible sign of our attitude. It is what has contributed to our thoughts and the way we want to get away without making any effort in our daily lives.

Casualness driven to the extent today screams, I don’t give a damn in any sphere of my life

It’s that old “Chalta hai” attitude all over again: ‘anything goes!’ There is no difference in the two. They both say loud and clear to the world that we just can’t be bothered, and it infuses in us the very same feeling.

In the last few years, there has been a concerted effort to make the workplace casual. Hence the emergence of workplaces like Google or some leading IT companies. Taking a cue from them we have ‘casual Fridays’ at many workplaces. However, it seems in the present day, our culture

The whole purpose of casualness is open communications and an unconstrained outlook. And that is only possible when we know where to draw a line. When we can make an honest distinction between what we wear and how we think, and not let either one of them overpower the other.