Andean and Indian women are keepers of traditions. Men?

Even in the active city areas of Quito, it was quite common to see women--young and old--in traditional outfits.  I was awfully tempted to take photos of them, and almost always better sense prevailed.  A couple of times, particularly in Otavalo, I clicked in a hurry, pretending to be looking at something else, and while using to the maximum the zoom feature in my simple camera.

I could have easily filled up the camera memory card with photos of women and girls in different traditional, indigenous attires.  The clothes and the women were lovely sights to behold.  But, all I have are a couple of photos that I hastily took with an enormous sense of guilt as if I were peddling illegal drugs in dark alleyways!

It was even more heart-warmingly pleasant a sight when young schoolgirls were chatting and giggling away in their outfits.  But, I was never too far away from them to hurriedly snap them up.  As I was walking back towards the van, I spotted a few schoolgirls; but, darn, they were not in the old-style outfits, but in this:

So, I did the only thing possible: I stopped outside a clothes store, and took a photo of the displayed outfits.

I rarely ever spotted a man wearing comparably traditional clothes.  Even poncho-wearing men were not as common a sight as I had initially assumed would be the case.  A few men with long hair, yes. And some bunched up or even braided. But, that was the extent to which men outwardly displayed anything traditional.

I suppose this is no different from the case in India. Even going back to my grandparents’ generation.

The one grandfather who lived long enough to play with his grandkids got rid of his traditional brahminical tuft by the time he was off to college.  There are photos of grandfather as a college student--back in the early 1930s--and he is in shorts and trousers.  On the other hand, his wife--my grandmother--continued to wear the traditional nine-yard sari and the works.

Andean men, too, seem to have easily walked away from their traditions.  I am not sure how much the women continue with the traditions out of choice, and how much the continuation is because of the relatively un-free and restrictive conditions for women.  I would hypothesize that if girls and women had as much freedom that men--in India and the Andes--have, then they would echo Annie Oakley's "Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you."

There was one photo of a woman that I took after asking for her permission.  At the market in Otavalo, I bought a couple of small items at a stall run by a woman.  After paying for the goods, I asked her, "photo, ok?" 

She smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. 

Without guilt, but still in haste, I clicked.