Man style

A young man waiting to cross the road at the traffic lights this morning chewed gum with a certain fanatic devotion to the cause of ridding himself of his double chin, which sported the most spectacular collection of acne spots. And he glittered as he stood there, his various beads and baubles flashing in the morning sunshine, vying with the shiny decal on his T-shirt for my attention. In one ear he had two earrings; his hair floated over one side of his face and down his neck; his rounded belly strained at his stuck-on jeans. And chains that defied description cascaded down his front, one with a large Om on it, another sparkling with a diamante-laden cross, a third – perhaps the only one that was real gold – with a rudraksh. Just as I was about to lower my window and ask how airport security reacted to his collection, the lights turned green and we cruised on.

I know very few men who wear jewellery. Shah Rukh Khan did in a couple of his movies, Salman Khan wears hoops in his ears and bracelets around his wrist and almost every young male soap star has a tiny stud glinting on at least one earlobe. My father, in contrast, would really prefer not to wear even a watch, and disdains all forms of jewellery, be it a chain or a bracelet or a ring, all of which my mother always wanted him to have, if not actually hold.

But a whole industry has sprung up focussing on the concept of jewellery for men. Think about it, and what can they use? Especially on an everyday basis? Cufflinks? Today most shirts are buttoned rather than open cuffed. Tie pins? Most executives of the tie kind put on the stranglehold accessory just before going into a formal meeting of sorts. Chains? Normally part of the average Indian male anatomy – the ones around the neck and the psyche, of course. Bracelets? Ditto. Rings? Ditto again.

How much can you do with all that? Plenty, if the jewellery designers are to be believed. What would you do with it? You tell me!