I have tried to find some relevant reason for this action, but from where I stand and perceive things, this whole setup reeks ominously of herd mentality. Someone saw someone wear a bandana or a piece of cloth on their head before putting on their helmet, and others followed en masse, blind to the shrill, piercing voice of reason in their heads telling them that this move wasn’t really a smart or necessary one.
I have noticed some people wearing handkerchiefs about their collars and then commencing their two wheeler travel, and that move makes sense because collars tend to accumulate the most amount of dirt when one is on the road and placing a piece of cloth brings you one step closer to a collar that would stay cleaner for a longer time.
Some of the standard issue reasons for wearing head-condoms (my reference for bandanas) are that it prevents hairfall. Some others argue that it is to absorb sweat from the head, for hygienic purposes, which come to think of it, seems like a logical proposition in retrospect.
For all its worth it, at the end of the day, it makes those that wear bandanas on their heads, underneath their helmets look quite weird, and for a few fleeting moments before they divest their heads of the offending piece of cloth, they look like one of the wannabe idiots that wear stupid clothes and walk up and down Brigade Road and MG Road, believing that if their net displacement after four hours of walking is zero, so will be the amount of energy expended by them.
On the brighter side, these intrepid bike riders who have no qualms about looking the way they do can always enter a Gurudwara or a Mosque without any hassles as they have already fulfilled the obligatory head-cover requirement.
On a similar note, I would like to point out fundaes about the other extremity that has caught my attention similarly.
What is the deal with socks and sandals anyway? Are people afraid of showing off their feet? This sock + sandal phenomenon is something that I have noticed in vogue even abroad, but not as significantly as I have here. It is my analogue to people wearing bandanas on their heads and coming across as absurd.
I have always associated socks with shoes, o as feet warmers within the house when it is too cold. That is probably the reason why I find it weird when I see people wear white socks and have them get majorly dirty by walking around in them, only with sandals, trying to make an absurd fashion statement of sorts, and have more dirty laundry to wash.
In the recent past when I was travelling to Bangalore from Mysore, I engaged in conversation with some female who had worn socks with sandals, and as she continued to berate Mysore and calling it a sleepy town for its supposed absence of ‘cool places’ and ‘things to do’, I decided to attack the socks with sandal fundaes and called Bangaloreans retarded. (This was before I started living and working in Bangalore) Needless to say, one can predict how the conversation tapered off, as she tried to explain in vain how it was for cleanliness that this step was mandatory, and that more vitally, it looked ‘cool’.
‘Cool’ people have me flummoxed!
there’s a chap here who loathes socks n’ sandals as much as you do (and i also don’t like it much). people who do it are highly pseudo, we say.
head condom! LOL just like that Vicks nasal dildo?
Bandana also for stopping some illegal immigration of creatures across scalps.
In Gujarat laydeej would ride their make believe bikes with a head scarf wrapped all over the face leaving just enough space for the orbs. The reason was excessive heat but they looked damn funny and some times scary (al qaeda-ish). I also couple of laydeej wearing gloves which just missed covering her ankles