The Hindu Business Line : Malayalees drop <I>lungi</I>, get into Bermudas

WHY is industrial productivity so low in Kerala? Because 86 per cent of the shift time is spent on lifting, folding and re-tying the lungi (popular Internet joke).

Not any more. The trademark wear of Malayalees, the colourful lungi, is fast going out of vogue in Kerala. Men find Bermudas and trousers more comfortable and hip, while the womenfolk have completely embraced the ankle-to-neck covering `nightie'.

"We used to sell up to one million pieces of lungis a month during 1984-85. Now, it has come down to just 1.50 lakh pieces," says Sabu M. Jacob, Managing Director of Kitex Garments Ltd.

Way back in 1984, Kitex introduced the first branded lungi in the market. "Men, women and even teenagers, everyone used to wear lungis then," he recalls.

Kerala's favourite politicians mingled with the public in lungis to get that down-to-earth image, its writers wore it in their pensive moods, its film stars folded it up to add to their sex appeal, and buxom heroines ran around coconut palms in the blasphemous lungi-blouse combination.

For the average Malayalee, lungi was always the casual wear at home. Be they rich or poor, bureaucrat or labourer, gulf returnee or job-seeking youngster, they all had a lungi.

Women were the first to ditch the lungi, switching to a more comfortable and all enveloping `nightie.' Though the orthodox still lambast the nightie, saying it is a nightwear that should be confined to the privacy of bedrooms, the fact is that it has taken the homes by storm.

Men still hung around in their lungis, but soon they too find tying, lifting and folding the lungi too cumbersome. "Today those who still wear lungis are men in the age group of 35-40 years. The younger generation has shifted to Bermudas and trousers," Jacob says, "many don't even know how to tie a lungi."

Those in villages also find the change irresistible. Cheaper Bermudas and trousers, mostly factory rejects, are available in any village. "You can get a Bermuda for just under Rs 75, but for a lungi you got to pay Rs 120," Jacob said.

In the next 10-15 years, lungi will completely go out of use in Kerala, he predicts. Sad, since the image of a Malayalee in a Bermuda is somehow not a perfect one.

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