how i classify.

in our creative writing class we had an assignment to write a classification essay. this is what i wrote.

CLASSIFY IT RIGHT

-Koshy Brahmatmaj

Classification in literal sense means dividing or arranging items/idea according to some general criterion or common features. Classifying makes things specific in broader respect. Classification is nothing but categorizing anything into different classes. It is all around us. In my daily life everything is categorized; from my clothes to my Facebook friend list, my bags, shoes etc. everything is categorized. Now as soon as I get out of my house and enter college there is classification  amongst the students,  first years, second years, students doing x course and students doing y course. It is all around us. We can’t avoid it. We can’t run away from it. Everything in this world can be classified.

People are often categorized by their caste, class, race, religion, nationality etc, but I don’t like these categories. I tend to classify people on the basis of their dressing style. The way they wear their clothes and the way they assemble it. I have a few set categories. I end up putting people in those groups all the time.

My categories are people who know what they wear, people who wear whatever they find, people who wear high end clothes, people who wear clothes from some ancient time, people who mix and match, and people who wear clothes just for the sake of covering their bodies and people who can’t carry off what they wear.

People who know what they wear consist of people who know everything about their clothes. Right from the colour to the make. They confidently roam about ready to answer any queries about their outfits. They always have their answers ready. They generally wear designer clothes, but one can see them wearing off the street clothes as well. They have a very well defined style and rarely try to experiment with their look. If by any chance they don’t know what they are wearing they pretend to do so. And they pretend very well.

People who wear whatever they find wear whatever they find. Most of the times they have no clue as to what they are wearing. They generally are seen in good old’ denims and tee shirt but sometimes they end up wearing other clothes as well. They hate dressing up. According to them dressing up is nothing but a waste of time.

People who wear clothes just for the sake of covering their bodies are very similar to the above category. The only difference is they know what they are wearing. For them clothes just have one purpose – to protect and cover their body. They don’t like shopping for clothes. If they ever shop they buy the cheapest clothes without considering how it looks on them as long as it is comfortable and it’s doing its job. Buying clothes is a waste of money for them. They tend to look very simple and sober.

People who wear high end clothes are the exact opposite of the above category. For them buying clothes is an investment. They are never seen without their Prada, Gucci and Hermes. They regard people wearing off the street clothes as some low class being. They will always be dressed in the latest season. They hardly repeat their clothes. They change at least 10 times a day. Most of the time they are shopaholics.

Then there are people who wear clothes from some ancient time. And with this I don’t mean awesome vintage clothes. I mean to say people who wear outfits that are like 5-6 seasons old. And on top of that they think they are wearing the latest. It just annoys me a lot.  Most of the time their clothes are the bad quality off the street, not at all presentable and of a really bad quality.

Now people who mix and match are the most sensible and sane people I feel. They know when to wear what. Most of the time, they are smartly dressed and have individuality in their dressing style. They are the people who experiment the most. But some of the people who belong in this category carry the influences of people who wear anything they find. But most of the time they are very well and uniquely dressed.

And last but not the least are the people who can’t carry off what they wear. Some people from all the above categories belong to this category. They can make the prettiest outfits look ugly. One of the things they tend to a lot is look uncomfortable in whatever they wear. It’s like they are just trying to copy whoever the coolest one is around.

The other way I classify people is by their food habits. I divide them into two groups. One who experiments with what they eat and one for whom  it’s the same food (boring) always. People who belong in the first category are adventurous. I think they will survive calamities and other similar things because they don’t mind any kind of food. I even believe that their immune system is stronger than that of the people belonging to the second category. It’s all because they are used to eating any kind of food. Their body’s just gotten so used to it.

Now people who belong to the other group are very boring. I mean they are just annoying. They will go to some country on a holiday and wish to eat Indian food there. And then complain how India has better Indian food. They cannot eat anything other than what they are used to. They don’t experiment.

While writing this I realized that categorizing people inthese ways is not at all fair and may be  very wrong. While categorizing people by theses ways I tend to take many things for granted and because of this I may miss out on many important things about them.

Classification fits our way of thinking. It simplifies things and helps us understand piecemeal, all the while giving us the “big picture” at the same time. Classification is there to indentify a whole community’s existence in terms of human being. People need classification to co-exist in society but at the same time it causes people to go against each other.