Boons and blues of printed T-shirts

BIRGUNJ, March 17: Simra´s Suman Bhattarai is a reputed teacher in his area. He´s a coordinator at Simra College. He is praised for his contribution to create an educational environment and disciplined exams. But now he is in ´trouble´. The slogan ´I´m with Stupid´ (as shown in the picture) on his friend Kasim Miya´s t-shirt has put him in a difficult situation.

"Because of the slogan on his t-shirt, I look stupid," he says laughing. "Just to tease me, he brought the T-shirt that has printed ´I´m with stupid´", he adds.[break]

Bhattrai, who hangs most of his leisure time after college with Kasim, while visiting cities like Hetauda, Birgunj, says many were staring at him. "Reading his T-shirt, people start laughing at me and I felt awkward," he says.

Prabhu Ram, a rickshaw driver at Birgunj also looks troubled like Bhattarai because of the wordings on his t-shirt he bought a month back.

"I don´t know how to read English," says Prabhu Ram wearing the T-shirt with "Bad Boy" printed on it. Reading it the travelers tease him saying "Bad Boy".

"I´m not bad, you see. I work hard to sustain my family, but people have started calling me ´bad boy´," complains Prabhu Ram.

With summer just round the corner, T-shirts with slogans on them seem to be getting popular amongst the youngsters. Various kinds of slogans from moral thoughts, love, hate and betrayal can be seen in the market.

"I want to spread the message that drug is bad," says Rajkumar Sharma who donned a T-shirt with a slogan "Drugs Kill", adding, "The number of drug users in the Tarai region is increasing, that´s why I chose this."

Many people, who had purchased their T-shirts not knowing what was written on them, seemed to have matched there lives. Hira Ale, holding a bad corn in the picture with a slogan on his T-shirt that reads ´I´m Sorry´ seemed to have matched with his life.

"I didn´t buy this because I knew about it," said Ale, adding, "People who can read the slogan say that it matches with my life."

Slogans have definitely done their jobs. T-shirts with the slogan ´Nice Girls´ are gaining popularity amongst young girls in Birgunj.

It´s not just slogans that are gaining momentum but T-shits with actors and singers on them are also becoming popular. Youths in the villages can be seen wearing Britney Spears, Shakira and Madonna.

"I don´t know who she is and what she does but I bought it because she looks beautiful and attractive," said Raju Majhi who wore a ´Britney´ T-shirt.

In the Indian boarder line city of Birgunj, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting, sales of T-shirts with the prints of Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and other Indian cricketers have drastically increased, according to a shopkeeper.