Tied Up at work

Like a prisoner looking at the outer world, thinking deeply about the day of his release, there lay my ties in the closet. More than two dozen of them! Yes, my fondness of ties does not die down and I keep collecting them. Of course, in the last couple of years I have not added considerably many more to my wardrobe, but every time I pass by a rack of ties, my mind invariably does the math and finally the brain wins over the heart. As most of my other IT colleagues in the US, I have not had many occasions to bring these valued possessions into broad daylight. They remain locked up in some corner of the closet, taken out only when I need to rearrange my wardrobe. My wife's graduation and a night time boat cruise were the only two times when I could tie that piece of cloth around my neck, and it felt so good - like IV fluids being given to a sick man. :-)

And so, when day before yesterday, Suneel (colleague at work) said to me that he had several ties at home and that he was raring to wear them, I happily looked at him and readily agreed to start wearing a tie to office. So, finally I had company to show off my prized ties at work place! So casual is the dress culture that even the EDs wear jeans Monday through Friday. It was once my dream to come to work in jeans every single day of the week, but then when you do it continuously over prolonged periods of time, you get an overdose. And I decided that it was time to go back to wearing tie to work.

I knew that people in the office would stare at us, but I didnt know that they would stare the whole day. Every single person came up and asked if there was something special. Back in Infosys India, it was so common place to wear a tie to office and here I felt so conscious wearing one. I could not stop thinking about it even after I came home. Even Girija was smiling looking at a different me. But despite all this, there was some extra confidence in me. It was as if, someone said to me that wearing a tie would make me less vulnerable at office. One stylish piece of cloth can make so much difference to your overall look.

The next thing? Wearing a tie to office everyday from Mon-Thu. Let's leave Fridays as dress down days ;-)