During the winter,
Shri Nathji would wear a woollen ‘bala clava’ ski cap which covered his head
and cheeks and chin. Shri Nathji, however, wore it only at night when he was
going to sleep, and sometimes kept it on the entire night during the severe
winters. The colour was always light brown or dark brown. There was one light
brown cap which fitted Shri Nathji so well that he wore it for years till it
was almost in tatters. Shri Nathji was never able to get another one like it
again.
Shri Nathji always
found the wool irritating and the cap difficult to put on and remove. He would
be constantly on the search for caps with soft wool and would frequently ask
L.R. Khanna or the home group devotees or Mrs. Bahl to get one.
He even went out on
occasion to Connaught Place to Jainsons Shop for such caps but never found any
that suited him perfectly. Maybe it was a wearing apparel that hid too much of
Shri Nathji's face from humanity!
During the Crimean
War, knitted balaclavas were sent over to the British troops to help protect
them from the bitter cold weather. British troops required this aid, as their
own supplies (warm clothing, weatherproof quarters, and food) never arrived in
time. It should be noted that the references to these hats were not written
during the war itself; according to Richard Rutt in his History of
Handknitting, the name "balaclava helmet" first appeared much later,
in 1881.
This type of headgear
was also known in the 19th century as an Uhlan cap or a Templar cap.
In modern American
English, when made for those serving in the armed forces, they are usually
known as "helmet liners". They are traditionally knitted from wool,
and can be rolled up into a hat to cover just the crown of the head, or folded
right down as a collar around the neck. There is a photograph which shows the versatility
of blavaclava cap and how a can be used in different ways.
Modern balaclavas can
also be made from silk, cotton and synthetic fibers.
Modern balaclavas are
used in outdoor winter sports activities such as skiing, snowboarding,
snowmobiling, running or winter bicycling to help protect the face from the
cold wind and maintain warmth. Motorcyclists also wear one under their safety
helmets for similar reasons; balaclavas also help to keep the inner lining of
the helmet clean.
Most commonly
firefighters will wear a fire resistant balaclava, otherwise known as a Nomex
Hood. Racing drivers must wear balaclavas made of fire-retardant material
underneath their crash helmets in order to improve protection in case of a fire
following an accident, and commonly cover the nose and mouth to reduce
inhalation of smoke and fumes. In China, balaclavas are even used as sun
protection. In the Indian subcontinent, balaclavas are commonly referred to as
monkey caps, due to their typical earth tone colours, and the fact that they
blot out most human facial features. Monkey caps sometimes have a small,
decorative, woollen pom-pon on top. They are commonly worn by troops on
Himalayan duty for protection from the cold.
The United States
Marine Corps has recently begun issuing balaclavas with hinged face guards as
part of the Flame Resistant Organizational Gear program. The balaclava became a
part of standard OMON (special police task force) uniform as early as the
Perestroyka years of the late 1980s. The original intent was to protect the
identity of the officers to avoid intimidation from organized crime. Due to
increased problems with organized crime of the 90s, TV shots of armed men in
black balaclavas became a staple of sorts. As the organized crime went down,
however, balaclavas became an instrument of intimidation as much as identity
protection, as they don't allow one to see the facial expression of the
enforcement officer or identify him conclusively. Armed Russian police commonly
conduct raids and searches, while wearing balaclavas. Such raids have therefore
come to be known in Russia as "maski shows", an allusion to popular
comic TV show of the 1990s.
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