This one’s for the sapiosexuals.
They say you can judge a man by the shoes he wears; we say you can also assess him by the numerous government committees he’s been a part of, his ahead-of-the-curve knowledge on artificial intelligence and all things technology. For those who prefer to still fall back on outward appearances, feel free to judge him by his crisp white Veshtis.
Did we leave too much room for imagination? We’re talking about Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
We aren’t endorsers of the ‘clothes make the man’ philosophy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t notice what they’re wearing, especially if it adds to their nerd oomph.
The 59-year-old, 5’10” electrical engineer, Chandrasekhar, perfects his gym selfies as much as his regulatory framework ideas on deepfakes and generative AI.
For those unfamiliar with this side of our MoS, head straight to his Instagram account. It’s hard to miss his black Ferrari beanie.
Looks like Chandrasekhar is a fan of beanies, not at public appearances or ministry meetings or press conferences, but he’s often seen in his beanies. Sometimes a black one from Ferrari and sometimes another black one from Puma.
He might just have a collection that hasn’t made its Instagram debut, yet.
We wouldn’t say Chandrasekhar takes special care to look his part, but sometimes being effortless does the trick. For instance, we couldn’t help but notice Chandrasekhar’s glasses. They are a combination of simple yet elegant, sometimes a classic rimless and sometimes a subtle animal-printed frame.
Moving on from accessories and coming to the best part is how Chandrasekhar sports the Veshti. For the uninformed, Veshti is a popular traditional bottom wear in South India, a single piece of cloth, very similar to the dhoti.
Chandrasekhar is often seen sporting a Veshti, generally paired with a solid shade half sleeved kurta. More often than not, he has one or two pens peeping out of the kurta’s chest pocket.
If we were anywhere close to being fashion critiques, we would give the kurta on Veshti a ten on ten.
But since we are not, we can only appreciate what we see.
Our MoS is often seen in jackets, but a sleeveless bomber jacket seems to be his favourite as he’s often seen in that. He’s also seen in a lot of jackets that match his short kurtas that he pairs with his trousers or Veshtis.
If you dig deep into his gram, you’d also see him donning an India cricket jersey. He says he’s not a huge cricket fan but a fan of India.
Nevertheless, his traditional handloom attire earns him full credit for being on Team India.
Like we said, Chandrasekhar’s style will impress fans of Zachary Levi as Chuck Bartowski, Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer or, closer to home, Arjun Kapoor as Krish Malhotra in 2 States – the knowledge, the glasses, the pens. Like the Gen Z would say, “iykyk”.
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