#3 Silk Nighties to Long Floral Nighties – The Nighty Menace

From exciting silk nighties to the unsightly floral printed long nighties, these were the most sought-after comfort apparel among middle-class Indian females. From young girls to saggy aunties, there was a nighty for everyone. Easy to wear, easy to wash, and easy to maintain, nighties were the perfect superhero costume for the ladies rushing through the household chores.  It could be pulled up to ankle length, knee-length, or beyond, depending upon the task at hand. While recreational outdoor activities came to a screeching halt during the lockdown, the Indian females channelized their shopping instincts in buying numerous nighties for every occasion. Long cotton nighties for comfort, blouse styled nighties for the aunties, lace and see-through nighties for some conjugal action, velvet, and silk nighties for an evening stroll, etc. The nightie menace was gripping the Indian society, almost sweeping away the mere existence of Jeans, Tees, and Trousers. You could see nighties hung out to dry on terraces, lawns, boundary walls, and even on the streets fluttering away to glory, like a victory flag of the Federation of Nighties. They were everywhere.

#2 Floor Mops: Saving Marriages and Indian Households

Mops attained a certain celebrity status during the Covid lockdown. While pompously dressed celebrities kept mopping floors in videos that went viral on social media, fashion gurus went bonkers creating designer mops that matched celebrity personalities. Maids started disappearing from the Indian ecological system, sending ripples of panic across Indian households. Fashion influencers on obsessive beauty regimes, the Keto diet enthusiasts, the manicure/ pedicure fraternity, and everyone with a picture-perfect life and over-dependency on maids were left distressed and worried.

That’s when Mops emerged as superheroes that kept the sanctity of the Indian household intact. Wives had one lesser item to complain about and husbands were at relative peace. The markets were flooded with Mops of varied forms and sizes, leaving the customers gasping. Long shaft, thin shaft, thick shaft, short shaft, manual and automatic, fitted with a sponge, cloth, coarse strings, yarn – designed for your convenience and pleasure. Wives were loving them, and husbands felt thoroughly empowered. Marriages were saved.

#1 Sanitizers: Happy with 99.9% 

Honestly, Sanitisers were a thing for the hygiene-conscious sophisticated class, who cared to worry about those 99.9% germs on their palms. Most of us had faith in 33 million Hindu gods and Indian Gastronomical miracle to fight off the germs while gulping down those Rajma Chawal at the roadside Dhaba.  The pandemic shattered that confidence in us. Buying a 200 bucks sanitiser seemed like an ecstatic bargain rather than risking an exorbitant Covid treatment bill at Private hospitals. That’s when sanitisers crawled up the “must-have” charts beyond materialistic desires of pedicures, beauty serums, and designer outfits. The markets witnessed a maddening rush to buy bottles, jars, and cans of sanitisers in all formats – sprays, gels, and mist. People were sanitising and washing everything from vegetables to underwear like fanatics.