Suddenly, tee-shirts have become a medium for whatever messages one wants to put across. It could be a style statement, it could be a social message or it could be a shocker to show how bindaas you are.
Tee-shirt literature, available on the City's pavements, in the seconds market and at high-end branded stores, include humour, love, family, swear words, poetry and even passionately written love letters, if you have the patience to read them that is.

Be short, wacky and funky to draw maximum mileage is the maxim that guides the tee-shirt litterateurs. “The latest message that I sport on my tee-shirt  reads: 'I am allergic to people'. No, I love being around people but donning this tee-shirt gives me a high. I buy them only for their writing, I am choosy and wouldn't mind spending a bomb on that," says 21-year-old Pranalika Mahanta, a postgraduate student of Jain College.

Mahima Tanaj, a native of Darjeeling moved into the City to pursue her studies a year ago. She says, tee-shirt literature is just as popular in the City as it is back in Darjeeling. “I like my writing on tee-shirts to be short and loud enough to grab people's attention because people don't really have the time to read lengthy stuff."
Concert and band specific tee-shirts act as a link that builds a community. Jim Morrison, Iron Maiden, Mettalica, Emenem you name them and they’ve all arrived on tee-shirts much before descending corporeally on the City. Available in the seconds market and Dubai bazaars in the City, they're all printed on plain black, in bright blue, red and green in large images and cost nothing less than Rs 350 each.

"The young wear these tee-shirts, when they go for  concerts in the City. This way they feel a part the hep and happening crowd. We sell more than five to six such tee-shirts in a day," says Abdul Aziz of the Dubai Plaza on Brigade Road.

There are also what's called the glowing Tee shirts. Abstracts, images of scorpions, skeletons — all painted in radium reflects and promises to scare the daylight out of anyone.

"I came to buy these glowing tee-shirts for an in-house weekend bash in our company. A few of us thought we would wear these glowers for a change," says Rajesh P of ICICI Prudential. 

You are what you wear, believes Ankur Chakravarthy, an engineering student with SIT. "Today's young work hard and party harder. They've an attitude that can take them places so why not wear  tee-shirts that make statements and say who they really are," reasons Ankur, who is another tee-shirt literature cognoscenti.