BETWEEN ANONYMITY AND CELEBRITY

From the light-hearted to the serious, imprints on casual wear, tinting with henna, tattooing and piercings have been statements of fashion, personal fantasy, identity, or cult culture. Some of these drip with the milk and honey of humanity. Others assert identity. Still others are just plain hilarious.

These are not fads that come and go. Mostly they have proved to be durable, dynamic and changing as parts of vibrant cultural trends. Some of these modes of self-expressions are of recent origin but the art forms on human canvas, if you like, have a classical pedigree originating well back in time. Most of them are creative, ornate and intricate like the henna dyeing in 'gaye halud' rituals before marriage ceremonies and during religious festivities. On international sporting and national cultural occasions, miniature national flags are henna-etched on young faces. No wonder, foreigners find Dhaka, for all its disorder and chaos, so colourful, especially on celebrative days.

But tattooing originally a subcutaneous procedure – and to a large extent remains so—has less rigorous options these days—almost painless , thanks to technology refinements. While small piercings are traditional aids to wearing beauty-enhancing trinkets in these parts of the world, the larger variety is performed in some tribal cultures in Africa. This is a testimony to the length to which social customs could go to proclaim marks of distinction between communities.

The T-shirt with attention-grabbing statements is another cultural trend that has stayed on. Generally, they offer space for free ads, posters with the company logo or an event organiser's emblem. Custom-imprinted T-shirts are sometimes meant to be reminders or mementoes of major events or occasions.

Most such T shirts, however, provide sheer fun – they are a collector's delight at home and abroad. The choicest bunch includes – 'Maye ekela hoan, mujhe tang mat karo' (I'm alone don't tease me), 'Don't touch me, I will shock you'; 'Jeena bhii kia apke bina' (what is life worth without you); 'I love you so much that it hurts'; Ham rahe pyaar rahe (love is where I am); ‘I love you two. I love you three, I love you four’. Then you have: ‘I am single, ready to mingle’, rhythmic but not quite a specimen of harmless humour, to be sure.

These self-presentations occupy the space between anonymity and celebrity. Most people, either by choice or perhaps absence of opportunity live their lives in benign anonymity. The few that attain celebrity status might have their own agonies. Here is what Fred Allens says about them: “A celebrity is a person who works all his life to become known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognised.”

The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.