I like him even more than Christian Soriano

The ultimate aim of this fieldwork is to provide the raw material for the presentation that will, hopefully, win me a job in a few years. I’ve decided to define that mandate broadly, so I can pick up some custom made business attire. To look snazzy when giving my job talks, you know?

I started thinking in the fall that I should buy a suit over Christmas break and then bring it back to India and have it copied. I mentioned this plan to a history graduate student here, and she had heartily endorsed buying an article of clothing in the US so that I could get exactly the same thing made in India. She, apparently, had no luck trying to take pictures and measurements to a tailor. Now, because she is a historian, full of advanced language skills and nuanced local knowledge, I took very seriously her account of what it was like to go to an Indian tailor. And I was very determined to find a suit that could be copied without any flexibility on the part of the Indian tailor; I even made sure my suit was all wool so that the fit would not depend on synthetic fabrics he might not have available.

In retrospect, the social scientist in me is ashamed to have been overawed by the humanities. (Extrapolating from an n of 1 – what would my committee say?!?) Because when I went to the fabric store/tailoring establishment (Delhi Cloth House & Garg Brothers Tailoring, in Khan Market, as recommended by Lonely Planet) they were just so entirely not overawed by the task I was requesting. The suit came out perfectly, probably to the point of constituting some kind of intellectual properties violation. Frankly, I am downgrading my opinion of the quality of the workmanship on Project Runway – and did I mention they use foot pedal style machines at this place?

When I showed them a dress shirt, the first thing the fabric seller says, without even touching the shirt, is that it looks like it has Lycra in it. And directed the fabric-bolt-fetching-assistants (that seems to be their main job) to fetch some poly/cotton blends. And here I was thinking I might not be able to get anything other than pure wool in Delhi – I guess it’s good that I at least knew they wouldn’t be raising the sheep out back.

Actually, Mr. Garg, the tailor, has been very patient with my naiveté regarding Delhi garment making. After I picked my suit up, we returned to the tailors and Merideth ordered a suit jacket and skirt – mind you, Merideth aren’t the same size and we have no pattern for a skirt, so this is a complete abandonment of the idea that one could only get exact replicas of existing clothes. While having lunch in the restaurant around the corner, we started to wonder if she should have asked for the skirt to be lined. You know, because women here don’t really wear skirts, so maybe the tailor wouldn’t realize that’s a part of Western business attire. And I convinced her to go back and ask. The tailor, with the munificence that is so becoming of the truly gifted, patiently said “Yes, of course, a skirt won’t work unless it’s lined.”

My experience at the tailor has prompted two things. First, extensive daydreaming about further clothes it would be fun to have made while I’m here. And, second, a bit of soul searching on the lines of “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Being able to make something as well as these guys is impressive no matter where you are from. But I also think that over the course of the time I’ve spent here, I’ve drifted into assuming that many people in this city aren’t very good at their jobs, and kind of bracing myself for hassle and disappointment before any business interaction.

Of course, many of the holdups in navigating India involve differences of opinion about what doing a good job constitutes. For example, I would prefer to arrive at my destination in one piece, but the rickshaw walla would prefer to arrive there fast. So, I can’t fairly claim that he isn’t talented at driving his rickshaw even though I didn’t enjoy the ride.

Still, it seems like at most jobs—apart from the small businesses where the proprietor is always on site—hiring and incentives just aren’t particularly related to qualifications or even to effort. And who would bother to learn a job well under those conditions? To put it another way: there is a car dealership in Delhi which is named Competent. They sell a lot of cars, and so I think that name must resonate.

On a related note, I’ve become a bit slow with writing on this blog because I’ve had trouble coming up with topics. I hesitate to keep posting on the theme of the sublimely ridiculous or very weird aspects of India – I don’t want to be a hater. So this post is my salute to the small businesses of India, and my tailor in particular. They're kind of a big deal.