India is a country where temples house busty topless goddesses, yet a girl can create havoc in an ordinary market place by wearing a short skirt. Or feel naked without a bra.

Girls love discussing clothes. Boys love watching girls in clothes. But a question worth pondering is what can wearing clothes – or leaving them off – mean to different people?

Twelve stories you liked best in 2012!
#5 First published 01/02/2012

With these strange thoughts playing in my head I was spending a lazy Sunday at my hostel when my roommate offered to drop me off at a shop where I needed to run an errand. I was almost ready and outside the house as she was about to leave to meet her boyfriend when I realized that an essential part of my clothing was missing.

Bra-burning
I had forgotten to wear a bra under my t-shirt. It might be a thing that people might not notice. But for humans like me, who are slightly plum and conservative, it’s essential and almost like power-glasses. You have to wear them or the world looks strange and hostile.

I told my room-mate and was about to run up when she said, “Oh come on! It’s not a big deal for a bra-burning feminist. And you’re only going to the nearby market. You’ll be back after visiting just one shop.” Her statement raised my hackles and I was on my way.

Centre of attention
It was one of the most strangest walks of my life. I was conscious of myself in a way that I had never been and felt naked despite the fact that I was respectably covered. I felt mentally exposed.

I’m not sure who was looking at me or not but I felt as if I was the centre of attention. I tried to take the shortest and the least crowded lanes but the feeling wouldn’t leave me.

Personal choices
I even thought about going home and coming back feeling less incomplete – after all my roommate was nowhere in sight. But a challenge had been issued and I couldn’t back down. After all, what was holding me back?

It’s my body and I decide what I wear or do with it. Since when had I started adhering so much to a society that’s scared about personal choices like these? I was told when I was 15 that it’s proper for girls to wear bras and since then I had stuck to the rule.

On a high
The heretic in me urged me on. And then despite the self-conscious feeling, I had a constant smile on my face like a person who’s just made love. With hindsight I think I was on a high.

It felt good to be liberated. Social constructs are for our protection but they shouldn’t become fetters, so life without them becomes unthinkable or abnormal.

Come to think about it then, a man might or might not wear the equivalent of a bra and no one of either sex will raise an eyebrow. But if a woman doesn’t wear a bra – or opts for a G-string – why does it make the world behave as if the sun has risen from the west?

By Roli Mahajan 

Photo: © Gabriel Blaj | Dreamstime.com