The “Mundu” Legacy

Many of my friends refer to “mundu” as “lungi”. For a malayali, there is a difference between mundu and lungi. Since this is not a subtle difference, you can imagine the anguish and frustration of hearing “mundu” referred as “lungi”!


Check out the mundu and lungi definitions on wikipedia. Both are garments worn around the waist and the similarities end here! Lungi is colorful while mundu is not! For a malayali, lungi is casual while mundu is formal!
Since time immemorial, there are jokes about mundu. A fellow blogger, Mathew, digs deeper to challenge the myths and also enlighten with facts about the mundu and it’s legacy.


He starts with the reasons for low industrial productivity that is going around the internet and challenges the figures. Then, he moves to the ancient history. The Romans knew Mundu but never got to wear it the right way. In not so distant past, Freud also talks about the Malayali mind with respect to the way in which he wears the mundu. Finally, Mathew also brings out the early morning debacles because of wearing mundu!

You can find more writing from Mathew at http://wetspark.blogspot.com.


Picture Courtesy: www.keralapals.com

Comments

  1. Lungi is Cool, ask guitarist Raghu Dixit, he says the lungi represents his brand of folk music

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Vaz
    No prejudices against lungi.
    But prejudices are reserved for those who refer to mundu/veshti as lungi. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. mundu is cool... can do a lot of things with it,at certain cases it can also be used to save lives hmm..

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Vineeth - Thanks for dropping by.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't mundus only worn in Kerala or something?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment