Ode On The Lungi 

Kaiser Haq

Grandpa Walt, allow me to share my thoughts

with you, if only because every time

I read “Passage to India” and come across

the phrase “passage to more than India”

I fancy, anachronistically, that you wanted

to overshoot the target

by a shadow line

and land in Bangladesh

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot

about sartorial equality

How far we are from

this democratic ideal!

And how hypocritical!

“All clothes have equal rights” –

this nobody will deny

and yet, some obviously

are more equal than others

No, I’m not complaining about

the jacket and tie

required in certain places –

that, like fancy dress parties,

is in the spirit of a game

I'm talking of something more fundamental

Hundreds of millions

from East Africa to Indonesia

wear the lungi, also known variously

as the sarong, munda, htamain, saaram,

ma’awaiis, kitenge. kanga. kaiki

They wear it day in day out,

indoors and out

Just think –

at any one moment

there are more people in lungis

than the population of the USA

Now try wearing one

to a White House appointment –

not even you. Grandpa Walt,

laureate of democracy,

will make it in

You would if you

affected a kilt –

but a lungi? No way.

But why? – this is the question

I ask all to ponder

Is it a clash of civilisations?

The sheer illogicality of it –

the kilt is with “us”

but the lungi is with “them!”

Think too of neo-imperialism

and sartorial hegemony,

how brown and yellow sahibs

in natty suits crinkle their noses

at compatriots (even relations)

in modest lungis,

exceptions only proving the rule:

Sri Lanka, where designer lungis

are party wear, or Myanmar

where political honchos

queue up in lungis

to receive visiting dignitaries

But then, Myanmar dozes

behind a cane curtain,

a half pariah among nations

Wait till it’s globalised:

Savile Row will acquire

a fresh crop of patrons

Hegemony invades private space

as well: my cousin in America

would get home from work

and lounge in a lungi –

till his son grew ashamed

of dad and started hiding

the “ridiculous ethnic attire”

It’s all too depressing

But I won’t leave it at that

The situation is desperate

Something needs to be done

I’ve decided not to

take it lying down

The next time someone insinuates

that I live in an Ivory Tower

I’ll proudly proclaim

I AM A LUNGI ACTIVIST!

Friends and fellow lungi lovers,

let us organise lungi parties and lungi parades,

let us lobby Hallmark and Archies

to introduce an international Lungi Day

when the UN Chief will wear a lungi

and address the world

Grandpa Walt, I celebrate my lungi

and sing my lungi

and what I wear

you shall wear

It’s time you finally made your passage

to more than India – to Bangladesh –

and lounging in a lungi

in a cottage on Cox’s Bazar beach

(the longest in the world, we proudly claim)

watched 28 young men in lungis bathing in the sea

But what is this thing

(my learned friends,

I’m alluding to Beau Brummell)

I repeat, what is this thing

I’m going on about?

A rectangular cloth,

White, coloured, check or plaid,

roughly 45X80 inches,

halved lengthwise

and stitched

to make a tube

you can get into

and fasten in a slipknot

around the waist –

One size fits all

and should you pick up dirt

say on your seat

you can simply turn it inside out

When you are out of it

the lungi can be folded up

like a scarf

Worn out it has its uses –

as dish rag or floor wipe

or material for a kantha quilt

Or you can let your imagination

play with the textile tube

to illustrate the superstrings

of the “Theory of Everything”

(vide, the book of this title

by the venerable Stephen Hawking)

Coming back to basics,

the lungi is an elaborate fig-leaf,

the foundation of propriety

in ordinary mortals

Most of the year, when barebodied

is cool, you can lead a decent life

with only a couple of lungis,

dipping in pond or river

or swimming in a lungi

abbreviated into a G-string,

then changing into the other one

Under the hot sun

a lungi can become

Arab-style headgear

or Sikh-style turban

Come chilly weather

the spare lungi can be

an improvised poncho

The lungi as G-string

can be worn to wrestle.

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(Picture of Kaisar Haq) 

                                                    (Kaiser Haq in public wearing Lungi)

Kaiser Hamidul Haq (born 7 December 1950) is a Bangladeshi translator, critic and academic. Known for his translations from Bengali into English, Haq is a recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2013) in the category of translation. He is a former professor of English at the University of Dhaka. In the liberation war of Bangladesh, he fought against Pakistani Army "as a freshly commissioned subaltern in command of a company"

" Ode on the Lungi is the highly studied and mostly appreciated poem of Kaiser Haq, the most eminent Bangladeshi poet writing in English. He considers Lungi, "ethnic attire," as the symbol of subaltern and gives them voice to speak aloud their sufferings and the democratic hypocrisy they undergo. "