Winter Blues

 When winter comes, can woollens be far behind? In the last about 35 years plus we have crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country, courtesy the Army. From Leh in Ladakh to Wellington in the South, from deserts of Rajasthan to Chakabama Nagaland in the North East, braving extreme weather conditions, scorching heat to biting cold and torrential rains, salubrious environs to pollution capital, all part of the game for all soldiers. In the bargain, we had to collect and accumulate clothing and woollens to match the seasons. Normally a person residing in Bengaluru or Mumbai would not need any warm clothes, or a person in Kashmir would not need summer wear, but since we are not sure as to where we are headed next, we hold on to all types without any prejudices or bias. 

So as Diwali festivities are over and winter quietly starts to creep in, the lady of the house gets busy, digging into the trunks to pull out the woollens which were banished there sometime in end Feb early Mar, making way for the summer wear in the limited wardrobe space which the MES/CPWD provide. The complexity of the challenge grows manifold due to the ceremonial attires of uniformed personnel. Our trunks, each one of them has umpteen number of stories buried in them along with the clothes. Blazers, Lounge Suits, Tweeds and jackets of all hues and types, be it leather or woollen which receive a royal treatment and are sent to the laundry for dry cleaning to rid them of the smell of naphthalene balls (for the unversed these are used for mothballing). The country cousins i.e. pullovers, scarves, cravats, mufflers, caps, hats are not so lucky and have to make do with just good old sunshine and some much needed airing. In addition there are thermal inner wear who though like to remain incognito but serve the most important purpose of keeping us warm and protected.

The challenge now is how to accommodate all these into the same wardrobes which were quite content with the much smaller inventory of T shirts and shorts galore. The winter clothes are left sulking for almost nine or ten months in a year, as they are sent to the dungeons, not because of any fault on their side but because despite being the costliest and most exclusive part of the wardrobe they simply can't overstay their welcome. Just like the years gone by, they had probably expected to be rescued by the time it was December, but this year winters have been late setting in, blame it on the climate change. Then it makes a grand entry by the year end and threatening to shatter the records by plummeting  the mercury to the dreaded zero or just about there, leaving in its trail a shivering North India. Surprisingly even good old smog also did not come to our rescue this year which chose not descend to our levels and stayed in the upper reaches. 

There was a time when I would have preferred cold weather to summers any day, simply because you could add layers of clothing to provide insulation and keep yourself warm, in contrast you could only strip to the bare essentials which did not prove effective. The peegate accused could have got away if he was traveling in a general compartment in Train on a chilly evening, as with the layers of clothes he could have blamed it on the inability to be able to extricate the willy which would have been buried under all the innerwear.

  The times have changed with little hair left on my balding pate and old bones creaking, summers are preferable; a headgear is a prerequisite even indoors now. In fact I have a collection of caps and hats of all kinds now; in the Army as it is, we collect all kinds of caps some presented on the golf courses, some picked up as memorabilia from the academies and institutions (no not mental ones, supposedly cerebral ones, although there isn't much to choose between the two!) and some as  tourists, last count I think I had more than 50 of them. My better half is at her wit's end how and where to keep them... I have my plans for my permanent dwelling where each of them will find a pride of place. But as of now most of them have to rest content in the trunks with only a few of them allowed within the premises.

While the struggle with the wardrobes is playing on Rahul Gandhi seems to have shown us a path towards salvation with his half sleeves T shirt appearance in this peak winters. I am eagerly awaiting some bytes on this closely guarded secret and I am sure so would many others. But I think out of consideration for the  wooly woollens he has not let the cat out of the bag, after all woollens industry would go bankrupt and he would not like to harm their interests. We, the lesser mortals will carry on withstanding the rigours of weather with woollens!