An Indian origin student Lakshmi Kumari has gathered eyeballs on social media for wearing a lehenga at her convocation ceremony in Switzerland. A student of law studies in German from University of Basel, Ms Kumari flaunted the Indian attire at her graduation ceremony. She ordered the lehenga designed by Anisha Shetty from a website called Fabilicious Fashion after checking that the website could deliver the dress to Switzerland in time for her convocation.
She wore the lehenga despite the freezing weather outside. A post on Instagram showing Ms Kumari in a lehenga reads, "You'd never guess that it was minus degrees and full of snow outside but obviously, one can't compromise on wearing a lehenga"
She received appreciation such as, "You look amazing babe pure Bollywood goddess", "You outshining the entire ceremony with your royal look. Girl you didn't just graduate; you coronated!", "Omg you look soo beautiful And this lehenga.. damn" " Many students in South African wear traditional Indian attire when they graduate. Not anything out of the ordinary here but you looked lovely nevertheless." among others on her Instagram post.
In an interview after the ceremony, she mentioned that she decided to wear the lehenga at her graduation ceremony to celebrate her accomplishments and compliment herself for completing the graduation in a language that was not native to her. "I told myself that If I could achieve this in a language I'm not fluent in, I deserved to wear something special to celebrate."
Talking about the reaction of her classmates and professors, she says that they all loved it and were very supportive and appreciated the cultural significance of her traditional attire. She added that even though she chose a simple lehenga and not a very gaudy one to fit the occasion, it was eye-catching as it is not very common to see lehenga in Switzerland except for Bollywood movies.