another connoisseur of the cravat club.
speaking of which, maybe you know of a british company called 'cravat club' which produces the 'bladed' type of cravat ( i wear suitably-sized scarfs as cravat ), some of them very beautiful in pattern and color, but so costly - 80+ pounds !!
Cravat Club
yeah, they stare... the ladies and the gents, though the stares need not always be of amusement but could be of admiration... you must ensure this the next time you venture out with a cravat adorning you... maybe you will find that instead of you wanting to do shraddhaanjali to their batteesi you will want to stare ahead with a shy smile.
the cravat was always a item a few men wore and most people wouldn't have seen people wearing cravat in their life and this is especially true of these unstylish times where many young males or the older manager types venture out in long shorts and a t-shirt that bears some silly logo.
among the reactions i have noticed concerning my cravat-wearing, recently one late evening i was walking on a footpath and there was one college-going lady standing and eating at a 'pani puri' ( golgappe ) stand that was near the wall... i only noticed her in peripheral vision and then as i passed by her, she was turning 180 degree to stare at me and with no noticeable amused look... i regret not making eye contact.
once in 2014, i was in the lounge of a cinema hall during the interval of 'khoobsurat' and there was a lovely young lady clad in a saree sitting in the right-side aisle of the lounge... she was with a young fellow... she was staring at me and i stared back for at maybe 12 seconds... i then turned away because she was with a fellow and i didn't want him to be uncomfortable and also i wanted to prevent any quarrel... i heard her ask him in the local language, i think about what i was wearing... i presume he said he didn't know (
)... and then i saw her holding her cell phone and taking a shot of me or vid'ing me... my word, she was bold !! i stared at her and she stared back for some more seconds.
and recently were some female school students, perhaps of 15, sitting in a bus stop and as i approached one of them who saw me first urgently told the others and they spoke amongst themselves and one bold one looked at me with a shy-but-naughty smile as i passed by.
and also recently when i was standing at a traffic signal waiting to cross, i noticed two older ladies on the other side slightly to the right, and one of them was staring in a nice manner.
and generally the males are either admiring or respectful or surprised... i have seen european tourists and the occasional arab being surprised in a city i visited.
there was one funny incident in late 2014 or maybe early 2015... i walked into a restaurant and there was a arab family of four... perhaps they were arabs from iran... the older lady was wearing a burqa with a metallic contraption on her face... the younger lady, in her 20's, was uncovered of face and holding a infant... the male seemed to be the husband of the younger lady... as i walked towards them to get to the seating towards the wall, the younger lady was staring at me with a shy smile and i stared at her for some moments as i passed by... and then i noticed that her husband began making a bit aggressive behavior at their table... i think he was angry at me and at his wife.
many such incidents, including one i had mentioned to
@django about a shopping mall where a young lady with kajal-lined eyes was walking towards me as i was walking past her and she was looking at me with a shy smile... it is to my regret that i didn't hold her gaze for long.
so it all depends on the attitude of the cravat wearer... there must be no arrogance... what i have learnt is to act naturally and gentlemanly and display the cravat as a natural and stylish extension of yourself... one must carry the cravat in dignity, flamboyance yet calm casualness... it will show if one is uncomfortably wearing it... so one must be calmly bindaas about it.
though of course there is the element of the cravat wearer always persevering to not join the herd of the typical office-goers and such like... after all, the cravat has been the choice of the not-ordinary people like the revolutionary, carlos :
the owner of the shop where i got two the two scarfs stitched into one ( to be used as cravat ), told me that over the years he has seen many people come and go, mostly buying ties and sometimes buying a pre-tied cravat or the "bladed" cravat and generally they confessing that they find it not suiting them but forcing themselves to wear it for a certain occasion, mostly weddings, and then he said that nature has given me a bearing that suits the cravat... i was flattered.
indeedy so.
nature gave him a timeless beauty of face and a fine physicality, both combined with a superb sense of dressing, which altogether are more attractive than some six-pack'ed young lout of today.