The necktie
Its said it all began in Croatia .
The mercenaries hired by Louis VIII for the war which lasted 30 years wore these pieces of cloth around thier necks actually to tie thier tunics but the king sort of liked the look and thus craveat became part of French regimental and formal wear in 17 century .
With time the neck tie took so many shapes and forms and became an important part of menswear .
The knots used to tying ties were many and did need some practice .
I still remember my dear friend Sushil Daniel an Optholmologist coming home to teach me the art of tying knots as I was going go join an UAE hospital and most hospitals abroad required doctors to wear them .
In India thanfully its limited to some .
The tropical heat of India is ill equipped for the adornment as air was needed to flow in from above too .
In UAE with its sanitised conditioned weather cocoons one could manage .
Even though Sushil did a great job my confidence in managing the feat was low so I carried a couple of knotted ties for the early days which I would put like a necklace and squeeze
Thanks dear Sushil !
Incidentally neck ties are supposed to be next to florid beards in bacterial contamination..bad news for hospitals .
With time knots never put me in knots as it was an every day chore for last one decade and in Brunei too .
But still I prefer tieless freedom , for wearing that top bottom makes me feel strangulated and first thing I do at 5pm is to unknot that tie and release my buttons and heave a sigh of relief !!
Iam happier even on formal occasions with a jacket sans tie .
Oh those Croatians !
