It's the clothes, Stupid!

First there were the lip readers, then came the fashion critics, briefly followed by experts on body language and now a need breed of analyst have taken over, who read, mis (sic) interpret, and further analyse what you thinking based on what you wearing.

So, when the Indian Prime Minister was noticed wearing blue pinstripe suit embroidered with his own name, different verdicts were flashed as instantaneously as a news break. While, some relegated him to be a megalomaniac, others thought that he made a statement on lines of the Dalit leader Mayawati, celebrating the success of a downtrodden to the uppermost echelons. 

But when Indians were busy trying to understand why Modi chose to wore his name, literally, the Chinese had a more interesting puzzle to solve. Their central banker, Zhou Xiaochuan, who was at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, was found to be wearing long johns, or the long underwear.

Discussion groups soon mushroomed over the cyber space, analysing and some even predicting that Chinese monetary policy will be loosened up, as the long underwear called – qiuku – in Chinese, fits rather loosely. 

A similar but not that noticeable trend was also witnessed in India, when the good looking Indian Central Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan decided to go for a cut in the interest rates, albeit by a marginal 25 basis point. Some websites, decided to equate it with Rajan losing virginity, given it was the first time during his tenure that the interest rates were slashed.

The dress code of some leaders, both in political and business space, may be far some simpler to solve than the Rubik’s cube.  For example, a topless Russian President, directly conveys what he thinks, so do a sharply dressed no-nonsense German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. 

Back home, with a muffler around his neck, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal tells you, without speaking at all, what constituency he is addressing too. The first family of Indian politics, the Gandhi’s are mostly dressed in pale or white colours, conveying that there thoughts are much simpler to read, hard to construe. 

On the business front, irreverently dressed Vijay Mallya is already in deep trouble and is in the process of losing most of his possession. The scenario is no good for Sahara’s kingpin Subroto Roy, mostly dressed in black and white, and he is trying hard to convince the courts about his grey affairs.

If we dig deeper in history, we will find that Winston Churchill, always use to don a hat, perhaps the thinking kinds. In USA, Abraham Lincoln with a bow tie was may be trying to convince he is more classy than the Southerners. Nelson Mandela who started wearing more African attire as he gained confidence was in some sense resembling the growth of a nation.

For reasons better known we have to exclude sportsperson and film actors from this list. Otherwise different avatars of Lady Gaga would leave even the best of analysts confounded. 

And, before I slip though inadvertently into the shoes of the aforementioned analysts, I guess I need to stop. By the way, I dress formals on weekdays…