THE  UNIFORM  REVOLUTION !

The recent news and discussions/debates on  introducing uniforms in Colleges and also restrictions on dresses took me back to my college days in the early seventies. 

             While in the last year of schooling ,  we girls were looking forward to get out of our uniforms and have a gala time in college. But fate had something else in store for us. We friends all joined a Junior convent college in that sleepy town of Trichur.We had heard that the college had prescribed uniforms for its students , but we were not prepared for the rules which stated that only   cotton  sarees  were allowed ( so it was good bye to Churidar /salwar kameez)  and that too in four light colours .White ,Green,Blue and Cream. There were specific shades. The cream was anything but a cream ,it  was  a hybrid of cream and orange , more saffronish  ! We had no option but to obey the rules, for mind you it was a Convent ! The saving grace was that there was no hard and fast rules as to which colour should be worn on a day, so  we did get  to see some colour in the campus as there were variations in four shades ! We were not allowed to wear gold bangles and chains  and neither were we allowed to wear any other gaudy stuff . We got used to the regimentation as undergraduates,  and lived in the hope of having a gala time  when we would go in for graduation in a matter of two years  , wowing that we would never ever join  a convent college for that !

Fortunately for me I joined a College in Calicut  for my graduation, the Providence Womens’ College .That was also a Convent college but in marked contrast  to the earlier one , the nuns here were very liberal and modern…no uniforms no restriction on dresses. The present generation may not believe it , but even four decades back the students wore Salwar/ Churidar Kameez and /Bell Bottoms and Western dresses and  in what would seem like olden times to the present generation , we also had staged a fashion show in the campus !! 

          My  good times in College, vis-a-vis dress code  seemed to end with my graduation as I was back in the old town for my Post graduation, in the  Senior branch of the same Convent College where I did my Pre Degree.. It was back to regimentation. But there was succor in the form of a few students who had graduated from  Government Colleges .They were literally shocked to  face the dress restriction. The   first ever “protest “  in that College must have been from our batch.. against the “uniform code “.The argument put forth by us,the PG students,  was that we were all in our early twenties and  could not be treated at par with teenagers. Under Pressure the Professor  permitted “plain sarees of all colours “ , but Salwar Kameez was a strict “No No’ except for one student under special circumstanes !  We, the PG students  took the liberty  of wearing  even synthetic sarees  and with small borders ! No one dared question us…I have no idea whether this “ trend “ continued in later years !! Now that this topic has come up I am sure going to make a research … to find out about this !