Santiniketan, March 4: If the palashgave way to plastic or paper flowers last year, the humble kurta-pyjama is set to be replaced by T-shirts this Holi.
Not only packets of colours, T-shirts with words like "Basanta Utsav" and "Laglo je Dol" are flying off the shelves in Visva-Bharati this Holi.
Both students and tourists from different countries are scrambling for the limited T-shirts in their last-minute shopping for the festival tomorrow. Till last year, participants in the procession that is taken around the varsity campus were seen wearing the batik designed kurta and pyjama.
Traders in Santiniketan said there was a surge in the demand for such T-shirts from last year itself, when some students had offered to pay much more for the garments.
"I have been dealing in garments for the past few years. Till two years ago, no one would even think of wearing anything but the kurta-pyjama. But times are changing now. Some students had demanded T-shirts last year, but I had failed to provide it to most of them. This year, I ordered 500 T-shirts, and all of them have been sold," said Sajal Ghosh, a former Visva-Bharati student who is now a garment trader in Bolpur town.
Ghosh said that such was the demand for the "Basanta Utsav" T-shirts that he had to order material from Ludhiana and stitch them here. He said he had even supplied to other shops and stalls.
The trader said he was selling the T-shirts for Rs 150-250 each. Ghosh hired a few Kala Bhavana students and local artists to draw the motifs on the garments.
Another T-shirt seller in Santiniketan, Bappa Garai, said he would order more such garments next year, adding that he never expected the demand to be so high.
Old-timers in Visva-Bharati said that with the changing times, there was a need for a change in the way youngsters dressed themselves during festivals.
"In the mid-fifties when I was a student here, we used to buy basanti colour and dyed our kurta-pyjama with it. T-shirts are modern garments and it is natural for youths to wear those made for the occasion. Times change, so does the way people dress," said Subrata Sen Majumder, a retired Patha Bhavana teacher, Visva-Bharati alumnus and an ashramite.
A decision by Visva-Bharati to ban the plucking and selling of palash last year had prompted students to go for paper or plastic flowers, which they were seen wearing as garlands or wristlets.
Dilip Ghosh, the owner of a counter selling kurta-pyjama on the Visva-Bharati campus, agreed that traditional attire had given way to T-shirts.
"Many young people came and asked me if I was selling the T-shirts. But I did not have any. So, I have decided to keep them from next year," said Ghosh, the secretary of Samabay Samiti Limited on the varsity campus.
Students couldn't be happier.
Bishnu Ghosh, a BA third-year student, said: "This is the first time that we are seeing such T-shirts for Basanta Utsav. I have brought a kurta this year, but many of my few friends have gone for T-shirts. They are cheap as well."
