The congregation were a strange mix, of townspeople in their Sunday best, and relief workers looking like astronauts in their white protective clothing.

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By the late 1990s Ujala was in West Bengal, where white clothing was equally popular.

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The third was a man in dark clothing and riding a white bike with black writing on the cross bar.

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Shahid Afridi, leading Pakistan in a Test side after four years in which he has not donned the white clothing at all for his country, correctly elected to bowl first, and set attacking fields for much of the day.

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In Test cricket they always wear whites and play with a red ball, whereas in the shorter game they wear coloured clothing and play with a white ball.

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When we met one afternoon at the Mandarin Oriental, she wore that French grace of dressing simply but in the best clothing: a smart navy suit jacket, crisp white shirt, good shoes.

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