Oh! King and other readers, if you know the answer to this question and still hold your peace your head will split into a thousand pieces. (Or something a little less biblical sounding than that. Damn! where are those Chandamamas when you need them? In Usha Bala’s attic along with The Children of Willow Farm Again, for sure.)
Ok, the question is this – who wears Chirag Din shirts? First of all, is it a real company that makes real shirts? Are these really to be found in the open market? What? What is their consumer profile? What are those ads about? Does anybody ‘get’ them? Do you suppose some people are really beating down the panes of retail store windows demanding this product, as we speak? Or do they make inscrutable ads, with obviously time-warped men and women that nobody would admit to identifying with, for tax purposes.
These questions have buzzed around my head for more than twenty years; feels like more. So now it’s either your head or mine that is going to burst.
8 comments:
Ah, Charagh Din. (Not Chirag Din, please note.) One owns two very stylish pieces.
One has admittedly never seen the ads, and maybe that's a good thing.
Oh! One! Wise One, good One,
The One for Knowledge, the One so bright
Depend on the One to find and right
The lapses of mortals in deed and sight.
Oh, One! A website was all I asked for and now with the righted spelling, I have it. And indeed there is a curious disjunction in their product and image. Comes from them being around for donkey’s years, I suppose. Now dear boy, all you need to do now is send me a sparkling picture of you in one of your shirts and I can cheerfully supplant that image with the man in the ad between overs. Coming to think of it…yes, that will do…will do nicely. But if you don’t mind, I’ll keep the woman just the same, hmm?
...'your head will split into a thousand pieces'...!
Not one of your 'lah-di-dah' days, obviously...?! :-)
Seriously though, I believe there was a time when the embroidered 'CD' on the front pocket carried the same sort of snoot-value as the little alligator... or so I am told by those older and wiser...
Talking of desperate ads, are you old enough to recall the extremely off-putting jingles that a clothing label called 'S. Kumar's' used to run, with interminable monotony, back in the Doordarshan days? Went something like 'tiddly-dum tiddly-DUM kee bahaar... sanjo laye hain S. KUMAAAAAAR's!' Just the sort of thing, in short, that would ensure a steady attrition of the existing customer base! [S. Kumar's are still around, I believe, and have graduated to marketing some fancy phoren brands...hiding their shady past by lurking behind a corporate abbreviation now...]
Bah! trust you to swoop down on that one. That is part of popular lore and not my own construction, you know! And yes, of course, I remember that jingle. Doordharshan has marked the psyche of our generation, no? In fact there is a Doordarshan quiz doing the rounds on Facebook, obviously created by one of our increasingly nostalgic lot. I thought I had aced it and I was quite disappointed with a score of less than 60% (was it?)
faaltu comment: S. Kumar also sold school uniforms ..the ad had a jingle that went "S for S.Kumar's school uniforms."
Auztra: you are phenomenal maan! Your long-span memory counter started ticking when? At two-and-a-half months?
they have a big store in Colaba (Navy Nagar, Bombay)
Anon: Is there one indeed? I will undertake the pilgrimage soon.
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