The new age Mahatma

Mahatma Gandhi, the most iconic figure in Indian history, dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and encouraged others to do so.

He also advocated and practiced simple clothing enough to cover the body. That was the story of the past. We now have another iconic figure advocating similar ideologies.

I am talking about our own Bipasha Basu (now if you want to replace iconic figure with enviable figure, that’s up to you.) Being in a country where a majority of the population is under the poverty line, she is encouraging the rich (which also includes a huge percentage of the middle class) to wear minimal clothes. By doing this, the rest of the cloth would be available for the poor to cover their poverty struck bodies (which by the by has 6-8 abdominal packs with a lean mean fit body). This is a very noble intention.

In her fitness DVD, ‘BB - Love Yourself’ she can be seen practicing what she is preaching. She has worn the skimpiest of clothes (which makes many young and not so young men love themselves!!!) People focused so much on her clothes (or the lack of it) that the exercise part of it was overlooked.

Keeping this in mind, Bipasha has launched a clothing line – also called ‘BB - Love Yourself’ (I hope she doesn’t launch a lubricant brand next.) She has not weaved them herself but the weaving has been done by Reebok. Being a national craze already, this clothing line has increased her fan following (even Captain Kool Dhoni was recently seen running behind her on the streets of some unknown city. No wonder his parents decided to get him married).

Keeping in line with her philosophy of save clothes for the poor, we can expect meager/sparse use of fabric. This may also help in reducing the gap between rich (of course, major percentage of middle class) and poor. Price tag on this cloth line would reduce the wealth of the rich and bring them closer to the poor.

Bipasha is heading towards becoming a new age Mahatma.