A lucky day?

When I first heard of this exercise, I was a bit wary because I would normally never wear anything that has been picked out for me by others. So as I waited at home for my ‘mystery’ shirt to arrive, I began to visualize what it would be like. It turned out to be a worthless venture as the bright blue shirt that I held in my hand a few hours later was nothing that I could have visualized in my wildest dreams. My earlier wariness was justified as I would have never picked out this shirt myself and the fact that I had to wear it to work made it even worse. My office is filled with people who wear well choreographed formal clothes (read uniforms). I could imagine standing out like a red rose in a patch of lilies. It was not an uplifting feeling.

Nonetheless, I put on a brave face and wore the shirt. Thankfully the fit was just right and the quality of the material seemed really good, far more ‘substantial’ than the regular fare. I reached office and even as I pulled up at the front gate, I realized that I was very conscious of myself. I know it was just my imagination but I swear I could see people looking in my direction and laughing silently. Some even pointed. I shook myself to awareness and walked on looking as straight as I could possibly look. The guard at the main door raised his eyebrows as he gave me a customary salute. His smirk betrayed that aura of formality that he was trying to put on. I slunk quickly into my office and just prayed that no one had seen me.

As I looked at my calendar, I realized that today was my lucky day. I had a meeting scheduled outside of work. I high fived myself internally as I realized that I wouldn’t have to bear the humiliation in office. Four colleagues were better than the entire workforce.

I finished my desk job and slunk away as quickly as I had come and went to the rendezvous point, Costa Coffee. My colleagues were already there. They all looked past me for a moment as I stood at the table and then looked back again. To their utter and complete surprise, it was me. I cursed the shirt silently. Thankfully all of them were good friends of mine and once the initial shock of the blue was over them, they silently turned to mocking me turn by turn and sometimes even at once. The mocking was so well thought out that I could only wonder if someone had already prepared them for this ‘color shock’. Only one guy thought the shirt suit me but I couldn’t take his word for it.

Thankfully the meeting was short lived and at the end of it, I did not have to go back to work. I drove back home as quickly as the traffic would allow. I had to get out of this shirt as soon as I could. I reached home, took off the shirt and quickly changed into something casual and less hurtful to the eye.

As I looked at the shirt, I realized that the color itself was something I would normally like but unfortunately not on a shirt and especially not on a shirt that I would have to wear. And thus ended my extremely adventurous day with the shirt. Looking back, I could say that it was fun but I think I would require a few weeks to achieve that level of hindsight.

                                                                                                                                            -Titus Lobo

My new Colorplus shirt…

Till date I have always been wearing a Louis Phillipe or a Zodiac shirt probably because I never dared to look further. Since the time I have got a new Colorplus shirt I have become a fan of this not only because of the design but also the fabric used. It is so comfortable, probably the next best thing to nude. The fabric is so soft that I do not even need to iron it before wearing. It is a shade of blue which is also my favourite colour. The day I wore it to office I got a lot of Compliments. Some of them are:
“Nice colour”, “Nice shirt”
“Nice shirt. Which brand is it?”
One from my own boss: “Saurabh, you are wearing a nice Colorplus shirt”
I wear my favourite shirts on Fridays to office. Since this shirt has a casual touch to it. I will be wearing this for the next few Fridays”. So this will be my Friday shirt for the next few weeks. I think I am a convert now and my next few purchases will definitely have a Colorplus in it.

Bright Tone at Dull Work

Today has been one of those rare days when you feel so different that it feels distinguished, positive or negative?? Well, its controversial. I realized what impact the outlook of a person creates on his surroundings and how the aura swiftly breaks open. Today, I wore a yellow stripped ColorPlus shirt to work which made me a little apprehensive at first as I have never been a big fan of bright attire at office.

The same doorman of my office building who would generally hold the door blindly assuming an entering ghost, was firm in attention and later grinned. State #1 i.e. confused I was.
As I was moving in up the elevator with mixed feelings, I was being scanned and smiled at by the fellow travelers. State #2 -Elevated confusion was taking over.

The front desk lady, Florence, was all in smiles and voiced "nice shirt" as I smiled through the bio-metrics. State #3 - 'So-far-so-good'.

I was a bit late to office only to realize that the mock fire-drill was about to begin. The siren echoed and all of us jokingly started to rush out the emergency exit. Down the stairs, I could hear people shouting,"Help, Vivek's already on fire". At the gathering downstairs, I had to actually collect a lot of 'nice shirt's. State #4 - Confidence resurrection.

Our lunch sessions are more of mockery sessions and less about meals. I was wondering if I would be the target because of my different attire. It turned out to be true. Sanjay and Puneet laughed their asses off which made me a really conscious. I was instantly upside-down in my mind and kept wondering if I was really out of place and all the compliments were fake. I thought it was totally a bad decision to put on this shirt and cursed my experimentative instincts. State #5 - Dawn of shame and/or devastation (confusion again).

It's said that rumors spread like fire and bad news with the speed of light. When I logged back at my workspace, there were few message alerts at the office messenger. I thought the light had already travelled and my heart could not stop thumping. I reluctantly viewed those messages only to find a few more compliments. State #6 - Stupefied + Mystified + Perplexed !

That was all. No further reactions, raised eye-brows and it suddenly seemed that I was wearing this shirt for ages and people had gotten used to seeing me like this.

Conclusion: An under-confident bright tone makes a dull workplace duller! At such a workplace, compliments blended with cynicism are served in cold-blood.

Why I don’t deserve this shirt!

The first reaction to the shirt: You look like something out of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

I found it hard to wear the shirt – especially since I was making a visit to the office and not to the nearest beach.

This shirt needs to be embellished with something more somber – a grey cardigan perhaps, or a black jacket. The colours -- candy stripes on salmon pink— are too cheerful for me even on a Friday. It was bright, gauche and gleeful, all unbecoming of me.

The shirt, if it’s to be worn right, needs a great sense of self assuredness, a heightened lack of self awareness, a trust fund, artistic sensibilities, psycho-pharmaceuticals. I have none of those things.

If Pablo Picasso had to pick up girls he would do it in this shirt. I would just be called an asshole.

The shirt’s very ‘Mediterranean’ – sundried tomatoes and balmy weather. It wouldn’t be out of place in Rome, or on a warm dark night on some Spanish stairs. On a rainy day in Bombay it looks very out of place.

I ‘ll wear it when I paint my masterpiece

Pink Freud

Pink! It was a Saturday,and i wore the pink - purple color plus shirt that i had received a day before...I must say this is the color which i have never tried in my life.

Andheri station was less crowded that day, the day being an off for many people in office, but i had to go, for my office does not let me chill at home even on Saturdays. I never gel well with people in the train - never, i assume they shall never see me after this journey and it is a fair assumption considering there are far too many people in the city and too few trains to travel, and anyway who meets and greets in the train until you're a Gujju who till date must have paid more fare to local trains than one would ever spend on a Thailand trip. Anyway the point is I never gel well, but on this particular day I observed people seemed rather familiar, as if they are the same people who daily board at Andheri and get off with me at Churchgate in the same train. I am not saying it was because of the shirt I was wearing or the music I was listening to, but first time I felt as if I belong to this local train, people were actually expressive as they made space for me and lent me the dangling handles to hang on...of course no one left his seat. The color of my shirt suddenly was so bright that I could see the glow reflecting on the semi-shiny metal parts of the train which never reflected anything I ever wore. In all I felt it was vibrant and lively, let me use the word “accepting” experience in the train...

As I got into the taxi I suddenly realized I was sitting next to my junior colleague, who was also wearing a half shirt, now I rarely wear a half shirt, and for a second I thought I was seeing my own image in him, as if I have gone a level ‘down’, junior colleague as I said...I felt so ashamed of being in similar clothes that just to prove my seniority I paid his fare as well – “hey here is the money for both of us - he is in my team”, you know! But that was something which made the situation rather worse as now he would expect me to pay for his travel always. I was acting and feeling mature and I hated the feeling!

I reached office, in my office on a Saturday most of the colleagues (except the free-rider in taxi) wear anything but a shirt! Unwillingly I proved out to be actually a non conformist there, I wore a shirt on a Saturday! One of my female colleagues asked - "Apka koi meeting hai kya?" i am sure they even suspected me of planning to leave this job and going for an interview somewhere else wearing the shirt, anyway I smiled and denied. No! I am not meeting anyone just because I wore a shirt. I felt strange as it does not look a formal shirt at all to me, I would not wear it as a formal clothing but people in my office relate the word "shirt" with "formals", ‘what color’ they can’t see...it’s like a color blind office where everybody just observes the make, nothing more! No wonder the free-rider never gets any business, he wears the colors which he thinks are formal but are not and adds to the vibrancy of the clients office rather than implying discipline. I do not think this color represent discipline at all, hence does not qualify as formals…for me at least.

I left the office early that day to meet some friends over dinner. As they kept coming one after the other they made sounds which varied from "wow" to "eewww" but all of them did notice the rather unusual color of the shirt. A male friend said that I was looking different than usual which was no news by then, a female friend actually tried to identify the color - she said it's purple, no pink no "i'ts blaaa..." she was at utter lack of words. Maybe she had never seen something like this in her color identification classes, an unclassified visual experience. She was awe/dumb-struck as if she has seen an animal she has never heard about, read about or seen. Or maybe she was plain – colorblind as my office colleagues.

I came back home late in night, put the lights out and closed my eyes as i tried to catch some sleep, I saw that unnamed color in the back of my eyelids andColors..They do change how people see you in them!" I don't remember what did I dream that night, but I am sure Freud would analyse them something like this "Colors are like those shoes which tell a lot about who you are! Or who you think you are!”

-Sachin Sharma