Of Fashion, Passion and Obligation

I was on a train with a colleague and we were having a long conversation on just about everything to beat the gloomy and boring Paris winter. He told me how passionate he was about cars and how has found his new passion for horse riding. We talked about watches, discussed Fashion, I told him how much I liked his new coat etc. He suddenly asked me what I am passionate about in my life. I frankly didn’t have an answer. You know, I told him, I come from a very modest family in India and frankly, there are a whole lot of things I haven’t done in life. I may like a lot of things but I cannot tell you something that I am passionate about.

We got out of the train and climbed down the stairs to transfer to another one. I saw a young mother trying to push her baby’s pram up the stairs, struggling with a bag on her shoulder. Cursing Paris for not having ramps, I offered her help. I helped her all the way to the top. Merci, she said, c’est gentil. I looked into her eyes and it seemed familiar. De rien, I said and I walked away. For a minute, it seemed as if I saw my own mother through her eyes. That’s just the emotional me, I thought.

This is my passion, I told my friend. To help people, to do something for the needy, to strive as much as possible to see that there is a change, and at the same time, not expect anything out of the experience. “Karmanye Vadhikarasthe, Ma Phaleshu Kadachana” is what I believe in and that’s what keeps me happy.

I don’t deny being attracted to worldly pleasures as passionate objects because finally I am a human being. But that being said and me being a student, I guess I have discovered my new definition of fashion. Fashion for me is to wear what I want to wear without having the fear of giving it up. I adore the watch that I wear but at the same time, I am not terribly worse off without it.

I was at a friend’s San Francisco apartment and she complained how her patio plants had paled off due to the summer heat. I volunteered to take a look. Wearing all the impeccably tailored clothing that I wore and the watch that I had on, I put my hands into the soil, made a small hole in the pot for the water and replanted the plant. My friend yelled, watch out, you may spoil your shirt. “Oh, don’t worry about it. After all it’s not worth so much.” I guess I had discovered a new sense of freedom. A freedom that topped my joy of buying things I like from the places I want to, at prices I want and not worrying about losing them.

I believe that I have an obligation to live for people around me. Vivekananda once said, “He alone lives who lives for others, the rest are more dead than alive”. I guess I discovered my inner Fashion mantra trying to fulfill this obligation.