From New York with a bang -- and a pang

By Lakshmi Balakrishnan

NEW DELHI, OCT 21. The American disaster is now here to stay. And this time round, September 11 revisited is not just about watching the World Trade Center crumble but also quite literally wearing a piece of that terrible tragedy on your sleeve.

If the ``sinking'' feeling of watching Leonardo De Caprio and Kate Winslet go down with ``Titanic'' had half the Capital's wannabe crowd sport T-shirts with the smiling twosome on it, it is now the melancholy pictures of the crumbling WTC twin towers.

The American disaster is fast becoming a fashion statement across the city. As one local shopkeeper puts it, it's selling like the proverbial hot cakes. ``Nothing sells like America in India. And with the pictures giving an exact account of how it all happened, many people are buying the T-shirts just to keep as memento. We started receiving these supplies barely a week after the tragedy. Though there were not many buying the stuff earlier, the number is now increasing,'' says the owner of ``Collage'' in Mayur Vihar.

It may not really be a call against war. But then, it may just be the average Delhi youngster's way of protesting against what happened in America on September 11. There may be various reasons for people buying or not buying these outfits, but many shopkeepers are satisfied with the way things are going for them.

``I have run out of all stock that I got a couple of days ago. We had started with very few pieces so that we could first gauge the reaction of customers. It did not do too well in the beginning, but is now picking up,'' says a shopkeeper on Janpath.

Available for as low as Rs.70 apiece, these T-shirts are being sold at places like Janpath, Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar and Karol Bagh -- which apparently is one of the places where these unusual prints are being brought out.

As Delhi's shopkeepers get ready to cater to the growing demand, many are already questioning the idea of using a tragedy as a fashion label. While some of the T-shirts available in the market at present carry the logo ``Save the World'', a majority have ``attack'' and ``the sequence of events'' on them.

The idea of a crumbling landmark being used as a fashion design, say some designers, is bad -- and sad. ``I think it is in poor taste. I would never approve of using the picture of a crumbling edifice as a design. How can such a design be used and termed as something cool?'' says the well-known fashion designer, Mr. Jatin Kochchar.

But a seasoned psychologist, Mr. Jitendra Nagpal, sees it as a positive sign. ``The logo is a symbolic way of saying that we stand up for these people -- and a mobile message for spreading peace,'' he argues.

A lot of youngsters, however, are questioning the design. ``The whole idea seems ridiculous. How is wearing such a T-shirt going to help promote peace? No one was flashing such a peace statement when Kargil happened. So why this sudden and strange show of love for America now,'' snaps Aditya, a college student.

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