My background and My concepts

Hi there,

 I was born and brought up in Kochi. It was a city life right from the beginning for me. I grew up like any other city kid. I never had been to my mom's place until I was 13 years old. That changed my life. I spend two months with my grand parents and they introduced me to the Kerala they knew. It was totally different from what I grew up seeing : not a soul who wears trousers or a girl who wears jeans. That is when I first tried a mundu. Though my dad used to wear mundu/lungi, I never tried it and my parents never asked me to do it either. For those who doesn't know what mundu is, its a long rectangular piece of cloth usually off white of about 110-120 cm width and 180-200 cm length. Its worn(wrapped) around the waist with the width running down from the waist. I had trouble adjusting with it. I was used to wearing three-fourths or trousers at home, but grandma insisted. First day outing and I was glad I had listened to her. I would have stood out like a sore thumb there if I had worn trousers.

wearing a mundu. 1

 This is the how mundu is worn

wearning a mundu.2

Every guy I met wore mundu or a lungi (colored /patterned mundu). And girls wore either half-saree, nightie or churidars. Women folk mostly wore nighties(yep, they wore it every where: to the market, in the streets except to the temples) and some, I found, wearing lungi/mundu with blouse and thorthu( thin linen towel). When visiting temples or going into cities or some functions the gents wore white mundu and shirt and the ladies wore sarees or set-mundu (similar to lungi, blouse and thorthu, instead of thorthu they wear a mel-mundu(white mundu like long cloth) and instead of lungi it will be a mundu).

At first I thought wearing mundu will be uncomfortable, but I actually enjoyed it. I loved it. Two months training and I was an expert at wearing it. Before I returned home, I made grandma buy me few lungis and mundus to wear at home.