a love letter to lungis

when i moved to my nani’s house during covid, what i was not expecting was a life-altering confrontation of the cultures that made my parents & grandparents the people they were. i was always malayali at home. i grew up in bangalore & dubai, cities where mini keralas thrive all the time. i always spoke pitch perfect malayalam. i was the most die hard fan & publicist of malayalam “new wave” cinema too. but in the two years during covid that i spent by the lap of the arabian sea, i became more of a malayali in my body too.

like the feeling of being held by my waist by a lungi.

to take a shower and wrap a lungi around you feels a bit like making the decision to simply exist that day. i can fold it above my knees if i need to climb a mountain. i can lounge in the verandah like a princess with one leg peaking out of a slit. i can let the air in.

i love picking out the colour i’m gonna wear that day. i’m giggling to myself as i envision my day in the pink lungi. if i want to float, i wear the sky blue one. & the orange one if i want to walk around the block & watch the sun set over the sea. for that pilgrimage thing i was doing, i could only wear black ones for two weeks, & god, i looked ridicously hot for someone who also wasn't allowed to have sex.

the hottest part with lungis, i think, is the access. even more than a skirt somehow which is a bit too thoughtful, a bit too secure around the waist- which it actually isn't btw, my hot take is that anyone who actually knows to tie their lungi will find it to be more secure than a skirt- BUT STILL there's something about taking off a lungi that feels a bit like agreeing it wasn't there in the first place.

& i haven't worn underwear since the time i started thinking for myself, so i walked around for those two years with the salty sea air cradling my balls until i relocated to north india for college & other ambitions in 2021.

i carried many mundus with me. a mundu, for those unaware, are distinct from lungis as they are completely white with a single line of colour. they're considered a staple formal wear here, but i couldn't wear them there as much as i would have liked to as it was still seen as a bit of a costume and that used to bother me. i’m thinking of trying out not giving a fuck soon.

i can imagine liking work more if i got to wear a mundu everyday.

i should also try to hate that lungi dance song lesser. it's fine.