Defining a Dhoti

Ever wondered how you would define a dhoti to a person who has never heard of the term before? I tried to look up the definition on the internet and surprisingly, found more results than I had expected. The shortest definition I found was "a long loincloth worn by Hindu men". Wikipedia has defined it quite aptly, as "the traditional garment of men's wear in India, which is a rectangular piece of unstitched cloth, usually around 7 yards long, wrapped around the waist and the legs, and knotted at the waist."

You may wonder how I ended up writing a blog on defining a dhoti. I was reading this book named Shantaram. The author, a convict from Australia who escaped from prison and fled to India, has described his experiences while he lived in the slums of Mumbai; and amongst other things, made local friends, learnt Hindi and Marathi, joined the mafia, and fell in love. The book comprises nearly a thousand pages in small print and I have hardly completed a quarter of it. However, so far I have found it very captivating. He has expressed the communication gap between himself and his guide, and the culture shock he faced in an absolutely entertaining manner.

Of the many entertaining events he talks about, one describes his visit to a typical Indian village, so isolated that it receives no electric power and the water supply lasts just for an hour a day. In his attempt to describe the local farmer, he talks about the dhoti. Following are the words directly from the book. 'The dhoti is technically described as a loincloth, but the term robs the garment of its serene and graceful elegance. It can be gathered up to become work shorts for labour in the fields, or loosened to become pantaloon style trousers with the ankles free. The dhoti itself is always moving and it follows the human contour in every act from running to sitting still......' In the next couple of lines he has a few words of praise for the dhoti. But overall, I found this definition quite creative and amusing, and that led me to writing this.