Sameera gets ready for the client meeting.

Dressing is optics of illusion.

It does nothing but to give colorful cover to body.

Some industries just bask on this optics.

Mornings in hostel particularly on week days are welcomed with yawning faces, unkempt hair, lazy and hasty movements .Sleepy face looking at the washbasin mirror with one of the hands holding the toothbrush with uneven toothpaste spread over it is another sight into hostel morning. Some girls rush to the bathroom and washroom respectively .For some girls envy is the usual alarm which helps them leave the bed even they are not willing .They want to be the first to conquer the washroom or bathroom. For the conquest of the bathroom they have their daily idiom that they will get late if did not go first, their office is pretty strict about the timings.

Today is yet another the morning of weekdays where the same routine is followed. Sameera wakes up to the hustle bustle outside her room. She comes out of her room dressed in her green dotted maxi; she looks perplexed and marches towards the washroom, after returning she stands in front of the washbasin mirror which is fogged with dust and water droplets .Somebody is already in bathroom, so Sameera spends more usual time staring at the mirror. Bathroom wars are terrifying –blessed are those who get up early and take bath and stay calm. While Sameera is brushing her teeth, Zareen comes out of the washroom wrapped in the blue towel and goes to her room and bangs the door tight.

Sameera picks up her blue bucket in one hand and orange towel in another and moves ahead towards the bathroom. She comes out of the bathroom in around thirty minutes. Her body language looks topsy-turvy .She locks herself in the room and emerges from her room after fifteen minutes .She is still confused and soon this confusion gets translated into frustration. The reason for her confusion is what she should wear for her client meeting.

Sameera is tall, dusky woman, born and brought in Mumbai .She is a graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication .she currently works in Public Relations Firm .The Company has very formal dress code particularly for women. They should be dressed in formals and do not take their attire as a casual affair. These, corporates.

She chooses to wear her black shirt and burgundy trousers and comes in front of the basin mirror. She murmurs “What kind of day it is. Client Meetings are the worst part of my job, I need to dress to impress”

She asks the girl in her adjacent room who is busy reading the morning newspaper, ‘ Nysa How does this attire look, is it fine for my clients meeting”

‘Yes, It looks good’, replies the girl lazily. While somebody is reading the newspaper absorbing politics and nuisance, it would be the last thing on earth for her to tell how one looks in the dress. .Nysa is someone who poses a very little expertise in telling people what looks good or bad. Her answers to these questions are uniform “okay”-everything looks good to her. She is someone who dresses as per her mood and not the occasion. Bohemian style.

But Sameera is still unsatisfied, she doesn’t like her dress.

“Okay is dangerous word. Very dangerous indeed”.

Nysa and Sameera start the conservation.

Nysa says “I thought before client meeting, people spend time doing homework but it’s strange you spend precious morning hours deciding what to wear”

Sameera replies in restless voice “Seriously.”

This media industry thinks the most founding block of the industry is appearance. No matter how deceptive an appearance can be.

While these two are caught in the discussion, Smriti (maid) comes to the floor with wet broom(it got drenched due to last night rains) in her right hand and mopping bucket with white mopping cloth hung at the one end in her left hand. She knocks each of four rooms one by one and one and does the cleaning. She knocks at the room number 105 thrice but nobody opens the door. She thus cleans the washrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and washes the washbasin, Cleans the washbasin’s fogged mirror, decides to leave the floor. While she is moving out of the balcony voice came from 105, why didn’t you knock my door? Now who will clean it? Come and clean it.

“Madam I knocked thrice but you did not open, you were sleeping tight”, Replied Smriti in tired voice.

Woman shouts “it’s sleeping time, and I will sleep. Who are you to comment on my sleep?

Smriti gets frantic and says “aap log itne padhe likhein hain phir bhi baat karne ki tameez nahi hai” “You guys are so educated, still don’t have abdicates to talk”.“Now I will not clean, if you wish to complain to the master you can happily do that” .She asserts.

Woman  bangs the door and shuts it in anger and smriti leaves the floor, her voice and sound of her anklets fade.

Meanwhile Sameera emerges from the room, she changed the outfit for the second time, this time she wears purple shirt and black trousers. Her roommate Mehez tells her with half awake voice she should go with this combination. This looks absolutely fine.

Sameera has already lost her enthusiasm towards dressing after one and half hour struggle with her wardrobe. She screams in angry tone “ I will not change this time , no matter what happens.” “Don’t wear jeans, T shirts otherwise client might take you casually.”These people I tell you” she adds.

While Nysa is silently reading the newspaper and Sameera is getting frustrated seeing herself in the mirror. A voice comes from the bathroom “Ask Amir to please open the water .there is no water”

Every time these sentences come from the Bathroom ,someone has to ring Amir to ask him to turn on the water supply .Amir is the guy who takes care of the girl’s needs in the hostel. He brings food, vegetables; items form glossary, repairs the tap, RO fan etc. He also plays the warden and keeping track of girls’ entry and exists in the hostel.

Coming back to Sameera has already toiled a lot, her face looks tired, drenched with sweat.

Nysa is sitting on her bed and watching Sameera from her room’s window and wondering  whether companies have the this one of the Dressing clauses where they write while you enter in job with us make sure you abide our dressing rules. Dress the best and don’t worry about the rest.

Sameera is now ready to move out of the hostel, she pick up her black bag and puts it on her right shoulder, wears her black heels.She shuts the door and leaves. Today she is not the Sameera who walks ramrod with confidence and elegance, instead today her shoulders are low, she drags her feet, and one can actually hear the fiction heels create with floor while she drags her feet and marches to attend her client meeting.

She leaves but what happened today, Moves Nysa too much, she decides to talk to Sameera once she returns from the office.In night Sameera returns from the office and drops the handbag  and collapses on her bed as the women do in TV serials when they return from work. The day really took toll on her. After everybody completes the dinner Nysa goes to her room and talks to Sameera about the dress code at her office.

Sameera answered “Corporates promote sexism .They take women to meetings to just put them as show piece .They ask them to wear skirt or glamorous clothes so that she remains the centre of attraction”, When Nysa asked are these corporate sexist?

Sameera further adds “Women also take ‘sexy’ and ‘hot’ as complement instead of taking offence. The 2014 Catalyst Census Women Board Directors notes that women's share of board seats in India is only 9.5 per cent. The country where women are already in insignificant number in boardrooms such scene is pretty dismal.

When Nysa asked her “Hey how much do you spend on your grooming every month”

She said “Its amounts average of Rs 5000.You need to buy clothes to look in and match the fashion trend. You know women repeating clothes for party or meeting looks similar to sin.”

Nysa wondered how this. Repeating the same dress in party is sin, repeating the same gossip so fun. Right?

Nysa was so enthusiastic to know about how it, she again asks has corporate fallen prey to the consumerism, it created?

Sameera looks at her vibrating mobile, watsaaps someone and types on the phone and simultaneously replies “We cannot say it has fell prey, but it strives to sustain the consumerism culture it created. For survival of consumerism, it has to ask people to groom themselves, look nice. If they don’t say this, who will buy the products they are making.”

Nysa says “If people learn they are more than their bodies, they can let to fall of the empire of consumerism. They target the middle class who has time, energy and money to invest in what they say and make. Those who go for shopping feel this are what makes them perfect and those who cannot feel deprived and depressed.”

Sameera tells that the saying ‘first impression is the last impression’ is taken to heart. Thus they expect if you meet somebody, especially your client you shouldn’t fall even fall an inch short of impressing them with your body language and dressing.”

“First impressions are often farce -made up by fake smiles, pseudo body language and phony wisdom”.

***

If you don’t have brain and wit, never mind just wear good dress. A good dress can camouflage even worst of minds.

Sameera compares “Bombay has a culture which is very casual about dressing, they have two or three pairs of shoes but in Delhi they have at least seven –eight pair .They are very formal about their dressing and they do believe that clothes define who you are.

When Nysa asks Sameera whether she is happy with her life or she will prefer a better world than this. She replies while smiling and tossing her pillow on the other side of the bed “I will not say I am completely unhappy with my life because at times you get the opportunity to wear that dress that you would not have otherwise thought of dressing. But yes I would love be at a place which is more relaxed when it comes to dressing.”

The clock in the mobile shows its 11:30 PM and Nysa should take leave from Sameera’s room. But before she does that she has a last question to ask.

“Does Grooming, dressing and all these superficial stuff that we focus too much on, makes one a better human being?”

Sameera Laughs and tells “No, dressing grooming doesn’t make one a better human being. Its mirage people believe in, knowing this belief will take them nowhere but to parties.”