Wardrobe Malfunction!

I don’t remember when, why and how did I pick up the habit of putting up trousers low but one thing that I remember is that it had been too early to be influenced by the fashion bug as it had not come in vogue when I was at school, and yes, the habit is that old for sure.
My low pants have always attracted sarcastic remarks from friends and relatives but hard skinned as I am, I did not change the way I wear my pants over the years. Even a woman I love(d) very much used to tease me for the way I used to wear my jeans, for they invariably hanged low from the waist and were oversize. Poor outfits were turn-offs for her and the way I dressed looked poor to her. I didn’t change and she dumped me. Well, I don’t mean she dumped me just because of my poor dressing sense; there must have been other reasons too. Let me not bore you once again with all those stuff.
Let me make it clear at the outset that my poor dressing sense doesn’t mean that I wear dirty or cheap cloths. They are almost always branded and always clean. The problem is with the way I put them on.
Let us come to the main story. My sister, brother-in-law and two niece had come to visit me in Delhi and one day, I went with them for shopping. I had to buy some cloths for sister and niece and we headed for Sarojini Nagar maket. The moment I ventured out of the house, my 12-year-old niece passed jeers at me. “Mama, why have you put on your jeans so low. It is not looking good at all and you are not looking like a reporter at all.”
I argued with her and made her understand that I am not known by the way I dress. I am a reporter and I am not made to make style statement, but to make statements, as is famously said of journalists.
We reached SN Market and my brother-in-law and nieces parted ways from me and my sister to move around the market on their own. My sister and I entered into a sari shop and asked the salesman to show us saris. The first question the salesman asked was what was your range. As my sister had come to visit me for the first time after I had got a job, I wanted to pamper her. I replied show us the stuff without bothering about the price.
The salesman started showing saris but he was not showing good stuff and the price of the stuff he was showing was less than Rs 2500. None of us liked the stuff he showed in about an hour, I looked around the shop and asked him to show a sari that was on display.
I had to ask him four times after which he showed the sari and both me and my sister liked the sari at first glance. I made the payment of Rs 4500 for the sari after a little bargaining through my debit card. Once I made the payment for the saris, the salesman started showing me saris that were more beautiful and higher on price range. To my surprise, he showed us more saris in the next 15 minutes than he had showed in the first one hour. I scoffed at him that had he shown all these suff earlier I would not have had to waste so much time and I would have bought at least one sari he showed later at one glance. It did not strike me then that it was because of my poor dressing that he miscalculated my budget.
It was fuzzy by the time we were through and decided to go to Dilli Haat as it was nearby and no visit to Delhi is considered complete without visiting the place. I had also been there with the girl I love(d) several times and I love to visit that place still whenever I get an opportunity.
We reached there and after eating some chaat-waat , we were loitering around in the haat. When my sister and niece were looking at some artifacts in a stall, I was standing a little away. A woman came to me and asked the price of some stuff on display. As I moved a few steps without replying and my niece and brother-in-law started laughing at me (my dressing sense) once again, the woman understood the error she had made and said sorry. I swallowed the humiliation as my folks made fun of me.
And then we decided to leave. As we headed towards the exit gate, a young man walked to me and introduced himself, “I am from Max New York Life Insurance.” Expecting that he would ask me to buy some life insurance policies, I listened to him. But the next line he uttered was like he poured buckets of water upon me. He said, “We are looking for people who would sell out policies to people around them.” Ashamed, I replied, “Sorry, I am not interested,” and walked on.
Now this time my brother-in-law started scolding me, “Why don’t you wear your cloths properly. Someone thinks you are a salesman, others think that you are unemployed. The way you dress forms an important component of your personality.”
Convinced beyond doubt and unable to bear so much humiliation in one day, we headed once again to SN Market and I bought a brand new Levis jeans.
So I finally changed the way I dress because of jeers and sneers of people in one day. The answer is a resounding ‘No’.
This time too the jeans were one size bigger than me and they too hang as loosely as other pairs do.
Well, I am convinced that dress is an important part of one’s personality and would like the way I dress to change. But the change has to be spontaneous; on it’s own and not induced by rejection and humiliation heaped by others.