Spectacular Mahendra

TM is well informed. Mahendra was wearing one of his more spectacular creations last night. Since it was mentioned…

I am feeling a little uncomfortable in my seat right now. I have a confession to make. This tie, which I think a rather strange tie, which elicited several chuckles from me on the first spotting, is growing on me. I can almost say that I like it but the words don’t roll off my tongue with ease just yet. It however captured my gaze and held it. I feel a bit like a teenager with a crush.

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Must confess I missed the news last night: was having a post-work kip to counter the effects of a boozy lunch...

However, have had several reports from fellow Mahendra addicts that the man was sporting a truly spectacular tie. Will readers please share their reflections with us by posting comments - I am dying to know more details!

Joanne almost chokes, but not quite...

Joanne was on tonight - haven't seen her for a while. Actually, I lie, I spotted her on Friday, but only ever so briefly, and not particularly worth commenting on...

Tonight she was in a red jacket, and yes, it was definitely red, no puny pomegranate for Joanne.

Her top was black. It was hard to distinguish the cut of its neckline, because the annoyingly large SABC3 logo obscured a great deal of it but, after much peering at the TV screen, it appeared to be a cowl neck. (I am open to correction on this one).

Cowl necks, polo necks, whatever neck it was, none of them work for me. It must be tough being a female newsreader, at least Mahendra gets to wear a tie!

Joanne's outfit was rounded off with a piece of chokeresque neckwear. I say chokeresque, because it didn't quite deserve to be called a choker, not fitting snugly enough.

Sorry, missed the weatherman again. I suspect he is sending much rain to punish me...

Of Sunglasses and Beholders

I was bored with the news last night. It was Tsepiso. Frankly, I can’t remember what she was wearing except for a polo neck, clearly not taking TM’s good advice to heart.

I however could not help thinking about Mahendra when I read this article, for two reasons. Firstly, I’d love to see Mahendra in sunglasses. Does he have one pair only, [Ray Ban? Oakley? Surely not pavement specials?] or is he a serial spec buyer and wearer? Secondly, when reading this blog does he go “…do you genuinely believe that the aesthetic qualities of, say, a dress [make that ‘a tie’] are determined by an onlooker, ie you, probably?” pulling his mouth into that signature ‘smile’ on the eee of probablee.

P.S. If anyone has spotted Mahendra in specs some feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Mahendra - the red peril?

Tonight I sighted Mahendra's new haircut for the first time; it certainly brings out his inner schoolboy, and highlights the naughty twinkle in his eye.

The Raghunath was sporting a dark jarket of indeterminate hue, a white/off-white shirt, and a bold red tie. The tie was printed with white circle-like graphics, which looked like 'tribal swirls', as a fellow Mahendra watcher astutely observed.

Watching the insert about the untimely death of Percy Sonn, I was delighted to see the late Percy also had a fetish for brightly coloured ties. Archival footage showed him wearing one with broad stripes in hues of pink, gold, green and blue. Perhaps he was Mahendra's original style guru?

Normally I put down my pen during the inserts, but they seemed ripe for interpretation tonight. During the piece about the striking workers, I couldn't help but notice the many red banners carried by members of Nehawu.

The workers with red banners. Mahendra with a red tie. Could this be a subtle signal to his many admirers? Will he be running for president on a trade union ticket?

I had to switch off the television before my imagination got the better of me. Apologies to the weatherman: I will make an extra-special note on your attire the next time I tune in...

Mahendra enters succession race

Friday lunchtime news: Mahendra shifts focus from his new schoolboy haircut by wearing his presidential ensemble. That's right: a sensible dark jacket (black or navy, but who knows what the colour-balance settings on the cameras were), a white shirt, and a dark blue tie with a small white motif (or was it gold or grey - see comment on balance settings):



Now those of you who follow national and international news will notice that this kind of ensemble is favoured by presidents infamous and famous all over the world. Both Thabo Mbeki and George Bush have been spotted in similar shades of power. Could Mahendra be holding an ace up his sleeve? Will he run for president of South Africa? What would Sexwale do?

I missed Mahendra

My head was somewhere in the clouds at 7 o'clock this evening, and the rest of my body too, as I was on an aeroplane, homeward bound.

So I missed Mahendra, and also missed him, as it were.

Earlier in the evening, I found myself involuntarily appraising the tie of the driver who was taking me to the airport.

Its knot was disconcertingly modest, and I yearned for Mahendra's bulbous creations. I will refrain from describing this inferior tie in more detail, as I am strongly against product placement(particularly when no one has offered to pay us).

Suffice it to say - the driver's tie competed with Mahendra's in the brightness stakes.

Lunchtime Tintin in light lilac

...or lila as my grandmother used to say. She did not mean the Hindu lila, although it would not have been amiss today as the years fell off Mahendra's face when he read the story about Tintin's 75th birthday. He became visibly excited, his eyes sparkled, and for a moment he looked just like Tintin himself, hairstyle and all. I could (at not too much of a stretch, I might add) even imagine Tintin wearing that diagonally striped red, lila, purple and black tie. And so, when Tembisa asked him if he was a fan he left us with an enthusiastic “OH YES!” from the wings as he ran off. Maybe, if he does not get lost in Tintin's adventures, we will see him tonight for the seven o'clock news, just maybe.

Raspberry Swirl

"He wears nice ties, sometimes," noted an acquaintance of mine earlier today.
"He also has funny ones," she added, which I thought was more on the mark.

I didn't ask her if she meant funny(strange) or funny(haha): Mahendra's ties switch with ease between the two categories, often occupying both simultaneously.

Tonight I found not only his tie, but his entire outfit, 'funny'.

His jacket was a shimmering silver (although perhaps that was just my television; it could have been merely a light grey), and curiously striped. The stripes themselves gave the effect of standing out from the jacket, reminding me of those hologram pictures that were all the rage in the early '90s. I had to keep blinking my eyes to see if they would go away, but they didn't.

I know quilted jackets are in this winter (again) - but an embossed jacket?! I'm not quite sure that Mahendra is on trend with this one.

Then there was the so-not-subtle stitching detail around the buttonhole on his lapel, which I suspect could become a trademark of Mahendra's style. This time it was in black (and when I went up close to the screen, there appeared to be white stitching, around the black stitching, around the buttonhole). It matched his microphone, but did not go at all with the light tone of the jacket.

Mahrendra's shirt was plum-coloured, and the most mundane part of his attire. It only gets one sentence. Or two, or three...

The tie itself? It was a showstopper! My guess is it was chosen in a well-intentioned attempt to match the jacket, the shirt, and the microphone, all at once. I can't swear I remember all the colours (my eyes were bamboozled at the time), but I noted tones of royal purple, grey, black, white, light pink, and maroon.

It looked like raspberry-swirl ice cream, when it is still in the container before you have disturbed its pristine, striped glory.

Sometimes I feel as if Mahendra is teasing us all...

[See also "Goeie Genugtig..."]

The return of the marshmallow woman

Missed Mahendra, but there was enough entertainment tonight without him, although it does seem slightly sacrilegious to say so.

Tsepiso Makwetla was dressed in a most peculiar confection. I know that it's cold at the moment, but I have also realised that no presenter anywhere, ever, no matter the temperature, should resort to wearing a polo-neck jersey. Poor Tsepiso resembled nothing so much as Mr and Mrs Twit, their health declining and their necks descending, as they succumbed to an attack of the dreaded shrinks.

But this wasn't all. On top of her basic black polo neck, Ms Makwetla wore a pink jacket, the hue of which can best be described as 'marshmallow'. If she were six-years-old, yes. If it were summer, and she were wearing a floaty, strappy dress to a garden party, perhaps. But not for the seven o'clock news, no.

PS - I do try to attend only to the most frivolous aspects of the news, but after watching tonight's bulletin, I feel I must add: Brett & Richard, RIP.