What Should I Wear

By Juhi Bansal

Okay let me clarify the caption before you assume this is a call for opinion on my sartorial choices that it was nothing but a rhetorical question. I do not want to know or even worry about what others expect me to wear let alone follow their advice.

Every now and then, I inadvertently run into people (surprisingly all women) who make it their business to tell me things like:

I must dress according to my age or why they can’t fathom I dress like I do or that something else suits me so much they are surprised I don’t wear it more often. They have an opinion on my footwear choices, colour choices, the length of my outfit and what not. They think they are doing me a favor. That they are teaching me the ways of the world or how a “woman my age” should be. Most days I just smile and walk away. Most days I don’t care because it doesn’t matter.

But, sometimes it sticks. Very very rarely but yes sometimes it does. And then I rant. So, here goes:

Don’t tell me (or your colleagues or friends or even family) how they should dress up. You like what someone is wearing: compliment. You don’t: for heaven’s sake, keep it to yourself. Especially when it’s a colleague or an acquaintance. What business do you have of telling someone you don’t know well, how they should dress up?

Am I someone who cannot take feedback? No. I am just someone who likes making her own choices, sartorial or otherwise and expecting people to not have an opinion about it. Or, scratch that- have an opinion all you want but don’t vocalize it every single time. I am not bitter. Nor am I expecting you to compliment me always. Just stop with the disguised bullying. Even if it is sugar-coated. Even if you mean “well”. Don’t. Opine. Aloud.

PS: The above piece and characters are an insignificant part of the othewise truck-load of love and support I get from my readers, friends and family. Thank you for the unconditional faith in me. It gives me the chutzpah to write pieces like the one above :).