One of the most popular and commonly used garment in Southern India is 'Lungi'. It cuts across all economic and caste barriers and is used by one and all, be it a hindu or a muslim, a daily wage labourer or the owner of sarvana bhavan himself. There must be some concrete logic or reason behind the ubiquitous popularity of such a simple piece of cloth. If you haven't pondered over it, let me tell you lungi has numerous advantages over any other garment in the world and its utility can be compared to none. I would like to list out a few of them here:
Uses or Utilities:
1) First of all its primary use, which is to cover the lower half of the body as all of us know.
2) It can be used as a towel. All you need to do is to pull it upto your face and it turns into a towel.
3) In the night, it can be used as a bed sheet. Just remove it and spread it on your bed and enjoy a sound sleep.
4) No need to carry a handkerchief if you are wearing a lungi.
Advantages:
1) It can serve the purpose of both, full pants and the shorts and can be converted from one form to another within seconds. Just fold it up and it is ready to be used as shorts.
2) In Chennai quite a few people complain of allergies and infections due to excessive sweating. Lungi makes sure that you get all the air thats available outside. If we define a ratio or efficiency parameter,
h= air received/air available
Lungi tends to maximize this efficiency.
3) While pissing , you don't need to unzip or unbutton anything.Its too cumbersome. All you need to do is to fold it up and start.
4) Once you wash it, the drying time of lungi is about ten times less than a normal pair of jeans. Therefore its ready for use most of the time.
I am sure there must be some important points which i have missed out on. So if you have any more uses of lungi in your mind, feel free to write in the comments. I'll include them later. :)
Note: This blog is based on my experiences in Chennai.
3) While pissing , you don't need to unzip or unbutton anything.Its too cumbersome. All you need to do is to fold it up and start.
4) Once you wash it, the drying time of lungi is about ten times less than a normal pair of jeans. Therefore its ready for use most of the time.
I am sure there must be some important points which i have missed out on. So if you have any more uses of lungi in your mind, feel free to write in the comments. I'll include them later. :)
Note: This blog is based on my experiences in Chennai.
