91. An unplanned experiment in hugging

My spontaneous temperament got the better of me when a friend surprised me by stopping by at a government aided-school to converse with students during my recent travel in picturesque north Karnataka. Liberty to speak on whatever topic suited me gave freedom to avoid being formally introduced, as neither half-a-dozen teachers nor seventy-odd teens were profiled. All eyes were glued on me without anybody being clear on what to expect from an uninvited outsider.

During such times when children are exposed to hatred and hostility, the idea of an engrossing but entertaining conversation was paramount in my mind. Pointing at the boys first, I raised the most unexpected query 'when was the last time you hugged your father?' Bewildered! Nobody raised a hand but quite a few confirmed hugging their mothers. The girls were found to be few numbers better in hugging their mothers. Fathers do not know what they might be missing!  

Despite initial hesitation, the conversation evoked interesting insights. A teenager reported that he hugs his parents when they are in distress. What difference does it make? After a brief pause, he considered it to cause a soothing effect. Hugging has been found to be therapeutic, reducing stress and pain. Research has further shown that hugging releases feel-good hormones such as dopamine and serotonin, generating feelings of happiness by overcoming fear.

By this time teachers too had joined the conversation, suggesting that hugging can have a positive impact on mental and physical well-being. If you’re feeling down or stressed, consider reaching out to a loved one for a hug to feel better! Should hugging be a normal practice at home, parents can free themselves from forcing restrictions and stricter surveillance on their children. Everybody agreed that hugging could be a no-cost effort to promote harmony and boost creativity. 

The headmaster offered his appreciation for an engaging discussion on a subject that neither occurred to any of them as a problem nor was considered a solution to many life challenges. The teens were to stun me and their teachers no less, as each one came forward to give me a warm hug. The gesture was overwhelming and moving, with the teachers' mute witness to the prodigious moment. I could only suggest that the idea of voluntary hugging be encouraged. 

Schools all over promote e-learning in a dedicated digital lab. Technology is meant to take things forward and compete in the world of immense possibilities. Having gone through the unbelievable impromptu hugging experiment, for me e-learning carries the emotional-learning tag. And children are indeed ready for it. It seems a glimmer of hope in a society that is increasingly being polarized.  

90. A washing machine like none other

I still recall how excited my mother was when she had loaded a washing machine for the very first time in her life. Unlike an unavoidable contraption now, it was considered a luxury item then. In a mini celebration with a handful of neighbors in attendance and lots of washable clothes scattered all around, the machine was switched on with its gurgling sound. Her life transformed thereafter, she had not to hand-wash laundry anymore for the five of us. She could hardly believe the change due to her.

Loading the machine and watching it swirl dirty clothes remained a spectacle for quite a while before it got turned into a domestic ritual. Although electric washing machine came into existence in early 1900, my mother got to use it almost a century later. There are billions like her still in queue to get hold of a washing machine. For those who survive on less than 2 dollars a day, hand washing the laundry remains a drudgery.  

But laundry technology has continued to evolve with new machines and products offering improved efficiency, convenience, and sustainability. High efficiency washing machines claim to use less water and energy, reducing the environmental impact of laundry while lowering utility costs. Yet, not more than 3 billion people can afford to wash their laundry in electric washing machines. Washing machine is every woman's demand, yet gendered inequity persists.      

Not sure why laundry as a task got assigned to women, who clean clothes by pounding them on rocks after rubbing some cleansing stuff and draining the dirt away in streams or rivers. In colonial times, the most common way of washing clothes was to boil them in a large pot, then lay them on a flat board, and beat them with a paddle. Laundry was often a communal ritual along rivers and ponds where women did the washing. 

Ever since first patent was awarded for a washing invention in 1797, the history of laundry has gone through fascinating transformation. From its ancient practices in washing with hands to the present-day use of innovative technologies, the focus has remained on methods for keeping clothes clean and fresh. New technologies have promised to keep laundry even more efficient, convenient, and environmentally friendly.

If the virtues of a washing machine are too many to list, why it has yet to become an electoral issue? Every woman may vote for washing machine, but none would dare to 'wash dirty linen in public'. Keeping one's dirty linen especially away from prying eyes has been the preserve of the more affluent and genteel sections of society. It’s a reminder to maintain discretion, best to handle issues privately rather than airing them publicly.

Of late, washing machine has acquired a political dimension. As the act of washing dirty linen in public gets negated, the washing machine has instead been put to use to laundry the person clean (of his/her dirty attire) for the ballot box. The electoral value of a laundered candidate is worth an important place in legislative governance. One only has to pass through the right washing machine to be held neat and clean in the eyes of the public.       

89. Good riddance to bad rubbish

Raddi being weighed

As I have now put to rest newspaper reading as an erstwhile compelling habit, my memory goes back in time when my father would coax me to read a few column inches in the newspaper every day with an aim at improving my written and spoken language. Without doubt, it did improve quite a bit. In a small hilly town where we lived during my school days, the newspaper would get delivered only towards the afternoon but in time before I'd return from the school. It was lowly priced by today's standards, but some neighbors used to share the newspaper.      

Not for news alone, newspapers fetched petty cash for the household by way of selling newspapers as raddi. For working journalists in those days, the raddi value of a dozen complimentary newspapers could easily buy a dinner. Not without reason was selling old newspapers every month a keenly observed family activity, over the weekends.

The old newspapers were given the ceremonial send-off it deserved as the Fourth Estate. The print media was known to spread authentic facts and credible views. There was no going back on what was seen and read in print, the news often got quoted as the last word of wisdom, truth and authenticity.  

However, much has changed since then. Need it be said that newspapers have only degenerated to the extent of missing out on truth, authenticity and credibility. It took me quite a while to realize the reasons propounded by Swiss journalist Rolf Dobelli in his book Stop Reading the News, wherein he argues that to reward oneself with less disruption, more time, less anxiety, and more insights could only be possible by avoiding news. 

Now that I have stopped subscribing and reading newspapers, news is no longer to the mind what sugar is to the body. I am no longer addictively overconfident about carrying news, as it is a permanently inflamed and completely pointless appendix. The illusion of empowerment is grossly erroneous as the news is an opposite of understanding the world. It only reports events - events without context and perspective - which can easily be done away with.  One is better without such news.

The Merriam-Webster focus on 'authentic' as the word needing attention in 2023, has made the search for authenticity reach a new height this year. With the media (both print and digital) passing off fake news as authentic, the readers like me are like rudderless boats in a sea of misinformation and lies. As the media's business model involves shoveling the greatest possible magnitude of rubbish over the print and digital space, I am pleased not to be part of it anymore. I firmly refuse to be part of this sinister model.  

It is hard for me to imagine that what we used to discard as raddi after reading news, is now being thrust back on us as news. By getting rid of the compulsive newspaper reading habit, I have given good riddance to bad rubbish.   

88. Is divorce a bad marriage?

Celebrating Divorce

Ever since I witnessed the first divorce in our family a little over two decades ago a question has continued to linger: is divorce a bad marriage? With divorce being more of a norm than exception now, there are any number of subjective interpretations on offer to explain this growing phenomenon. While variations abound, the sum total of it all is that prodding on with an unsustainable matrimony is now a big NO. In that sense, divorce saves couples from bad marriages. 

Divorce in itself is not a bad marriage. Instead, it serves a savior not only for estranged couples but their respective families too. Given the range of internalities and externalities influencing conjugal relationships, divorce hangs as the sword of Damocles' over most marriages. No wonder, there is a rise of 50-60 percent in divorce rate in India which was once considered to have the lowest divorce rate globally, an estimated 1.1 percent.

Exceptions aside, it may be safe to say that most marriages remain on the brink. With 'divorcee or divorced' being an accepted social identity, nulling a relationship for whatever be its worth is more of a norm than exception. While as many couples get divorced, there are an equal number who get remarried too. It is rightly said that 'marriages are made in heaven'. No escaping the reality of it as marriage is referred to as a 'plural' in this time-tested proverb. 

If you wonder why marriage has become a platform for exchanging multiple wedding rings, it is worth referring to Philosopher Susan Sontag who remarked that marriage is an institution committed to the dulling of feelings. Susan's marriage lasted a total of nine years, and she was candid in saying that the flip side of marriage is repetition. Isn't it true that the capitalist consumer culture is built on the edifice of novelty, be it men or materials? 

The trouble with marriage is that it is perceived as a union of two bodies, and rarely of two minds. In the early days following marriage, the couple intuitively copy the same set of arbitrary behaviors and values. Outwardly they try to become one whereas in reality they are more than one. As the mind starts playing a dominant role, the two bodies begin to drift apart. As soon as they realize the impossibility of an imagined future, terminating marriage becomes most likely.    

For Agnes Callard, the celebrated author of Aspirations, marriage of the minds is critical for giving longevity to any relationship. Agnes, a mother of two grown up kids, told her husband one fine evening at the dining table that she was in 'love'. Agnes' divorce story is worth reading. She defines true love as a state of being, and suggests that true lovers don’t really want to be loved for who they are; they want to be loved because neither of them is happy with who he or she is'. 

As one reads more into the lives of Susan and Agnes, it becomes clear that more than the union of two bodies marriage is also a road to fulfilling suppressed aspirations that begin to surface over time. Two individuals rarely have the same aspirations though, and neither are aspirations infinite. At some point one has to get to the value that one is supposed to be aspiring towards. As aspirations of two individuals rarely conform, the writing on the wall becomes clear!

It is no surprise therefore that in a bid to chase their respective aspirations, couples have begun to celebrate divorce. Afterall, you only have one life at your disposal.

87. To say without being said

As the sale counters were clogged with anxious tourists seeking quick bite at a popular mid-way restaurant on the way to Dehradun, I took time to look around the noisy food court for clues that made it immensely popular over the years. With tourist footfall on the rise in recent times, the waiters and staff at the dining facility have continued to be warm and hospitable despite being overstretched. As I looked around for a possible explanation, the answer inconspicuously emerged from the least expected place. 

Amusing and yet thought-tinkling, an inscription on a side wall read: 'All our waiters are married, they know how to take orders.' The wit is as much funny as clever, exposing chinks in the widely perceived notion of male domination. For women, it is a matter-of-fact-statement that doesn't need further validation while few men who glance at the inscription assure themselves that it is not them, but others of their species. No wonder, it is difficult to deprive a wit of its social or political manifestations.

Wit is understood as the plaything of the intellectual or the weapon of nimble minds, expressed in playfulness with words which convey feelings without being offensive. I am reminded of lawyer extraordinary Mohammad Ali Jinnah who, on being interrupted thrice during a hearing by the judge who kept saying 'rubbish' on each occasion, had turned to him and said, 'Nothing but rubbish has passed from your lordship's mouth throughout the day.' Wit had helped Jinnah win the argument, but the court was adjourned for the day! 

Come to think of it, wit puts everything before us with a certain gentle, loving malice, winning us to laughter without for a moment alienating our sympathies for the targeted. A witty statement makes us enter into a more profound relationship with words, descending with them to a deeper realm for uncovering layers of embedded meanings. It is, however, another matter that not only is wit on the decline but its appreciation too has waned in the prevailing post-truth era.      

One possible reason for men of real wit to be limited could be because discernment and lenity, mirth and conciliation, are qualities which do not blend easily with the natural asperity of our race. Since wit can be expressed only in language, not many have the intelligent ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. However, a witty remark can be an accidental reflection of a civilized life too. Else, the directions to one of the restrooms in a restaurant won't have read: 'men to the left, women are always right'. 

There are many things in life so radically unwholesome that it is not safe to approach them save with witty humor as a disinfectant. And, when people cannot laugh, the moral atmosphere grows stagnant, and everything becomes too morbid, too preposterous, or too mischievous to meet with sympathy and solemn assurances of good will. This is why a sense of the ridiculous has been justly called the guardian of our minor morals, rendering us in some measure dependent upon the judgments of others. 

A wit helps ease out of such compelling human conditions. It is for this reason that I can't help but agree with James Geary, author of Wit's End, that wit is more than just having a knack for snappy comebacks as it helps us navigate conveniently through the vicissitudes of life. 

86. In the blue is hidden a tinge of yellow

An Olympic-size pool (830,000 litre) has
about 75 litre pee in it.  

With mercury touching a searing high, swimming pools are back in business. Who would not love to be in blue waters at this time? Barring early afternoons, cooling off in the pool anytime during the day is a bliss, be it in fancy star hotels or pocket-friendly neighborhood pools. But swimmers often wonder if swimming in other people’s pee in the pool is worth the risk? Curiously, no one has ever claimed not to have emptied one's bladder in a pool. After all, when you gotta go, you gotta go! 

The best option is to feign ignorance, counting it as a hidden price for a big comfort. After all, pee is over 95 percent water and the remainder gets diluted to have any serious effect. Celebrated writer Khushwant Singh found pee silent in swimming pools where its diluted presence is silently ensured. A 2012 study published in the International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education had reported that about 19 per cent of people admitted to having peed in a pool. Clearly, an underestimation but good for us.   

To pee or not to pee in a pool is subjective, only the bladder can take the final call. Pee may not be as bad as we might think, however. A British naturopath John W. Armstrong had cured himself by treating 'on nothing but urine and tap water' for 45 days  In urine, he had discovered a system of alternate medicine that his family had long been practicing for treating minor stings and cuts, and which even the Bible prescribed: 'drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well'. 

In his hugely popular book 'The Water of Life', published in 1944, Armstrong had literally advised his readers not to be pissed off, but instead cajoled them to pee aur jee - drink and live longer. It gained credence with politicians and celebrities, as much with ordinary souls. While former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai added a political tinge to his own perfect medicine,  the British actress Sarah Miles immunized herself against allergies for being on her own urine dose for over thirty years.

Having tasted thine own waters, Desai even went to the extent of suggesting pee to be the perfect medical solution for the millions of countrymen who could not afford medical treatment. Not without reason as Shivambu Kalpa, a treatise on the pharmaceutical value of urine, propounds it as an acceptable practice across several societies. Ancient Chinese documents describe benefits of drinking one’s own urine, and people in Africa and the Americas have long used urine for various medical conditions.     

Its medicinal value withstanding, the creative aspect of pee has been explored in Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots where pee only helps to hydrate the screenplay. The very idea of innovation in the script is pitched around this universal saline excretion, which is a good conductor of electricity. Pee is so creatively woven into the script that for once the Hindi-challenged character of Chatur Ramalingam's struggle to find a place for mutra visarjan (urination) through the 180-minute entertainer lands him in real trouble. 

Pee is more than an essential bodily output on a daily basis. For some, however, it is but a matter of making a living. Not long ago, I was witness to a bizarre incident when my midnight travel from the railway station was punctuated at a traffic junction. A minor commotion ahead of my cab raised curiosity and I soon learnt that branded alcohol was being sold for a pittance at the road junction. The driver, however, cautioned me to avoid getting trapped into such late-night sale gimmicks. Why?

Because it wasn't country liquor but fresh pee carefully packed in a new bottle being sold daily to unsuspecting clients at that traffic junction! After an initial shock, I could only laugh my way home. It may sound unethical but it speaks volumes about the innovative survival strategy of those who are engaged in such skillful vocation? At least, our pee bottlers are not playing with the lives of their unsuspecting customers but offering them a time-tested medical solution instead. Skill India, anyway!

85. The economic idea in a brief

Look-good indulgences

It is a universal fact that economic downturn shrinks individual consumption while encouraging saving decisions. However, noticeable are the unconventional and somewhat weird economic indicators that follow such income effects. Houses remain unsold and luxury cars overstay in the showrooms, but women continue to venture out to substitute their expensive purchases with affordable indulgences. No wonder, despite all odds the cosmetic industry looks up when everything else is down. 

Economic history repeated itself when lipstick sales in the US had touched pre-pandemic level of $34 million during the Covid lockdown, aligning with a 25 per cent growth in cosmetics during the Great Depression of 1929-33. This was so when there was a decrease in industrial production by 50 per cent. Even during the recession of 2008, the sales of a global cosmetic brand had registered an increase of over 5 per cent and during the economic downturn in 2019, the cosmetic industry saw a 116 per cent surge in China. 

Are women cognitively wired to comfort themselves with affordable look-good luxury during social and economic calamities? Seemingly, they are. Even following the 9/11 terror attacks, lipstick sales had increased by about 11 per cent in the second half of 2001 compared to the first half. Such a consistent trend had led experts to conclude that the sales of lipstick were inversely related to the general health of the economy, and consequently termed it the ‘Lipstick Index'.

'The Lipstick Index' is certainly a manifestation of the income effect but not everybody buys its relevance. Consumers, especially women, spend their discretionary income on smaller luxury items during economic duress. However, the rising popularity of other cosmetic staples has given women more choices to kiss the lipstick index goodbye. No wonder, in many countries nail polish, eyeliner and moisturizers have emerged as the new mood-boosting economic indices. 

'The Lipstick Index' may soon be replaced but the concept of the index is still there. Be it an ‘Eyeliner Index’, ‘Mascara Index’, or even a ‘Facemask Index’, the demand for feel-good and look-good products remain a reflection of affordable indulgences when the chips are down, No surprise therefore that demand for luxury hand-soaps, carry-in-bag handwashes, and pretty protective branded masks are on the rise, creating a new normal in the abnormal economic realities of the time. 

Unlike the economists, women have had their own way of reflecting upon the state of the economy. Way back in the mid-1920s, it was the ‘Hemline Index’ which suggested that the lengths of skirts increased in times of crisis, and grew shorter when the economy was booming. In Japan, the ‘Haircut Index’ was in vogue in the past. Japanese women would wear their hair long when the country's economy was doing well and short when there was a slump. Both the indices now seem to be of academic interest but continue to prevail in discussions on the subject.  

...left hanging

One wonders if men have nothing to reflect on such matters? They do, but the poor guys have nothing on the shelf to indulge in and consequently end-up bargaining their modesty by refraining from purchasing underwear during economic duress. What a pity? This has helped US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to coin the 'Underwear Index' in 1970, indicating that its upswing reflects economic growth whereas a decline in the sale of underwear proves the opposite. If men hold back from purchasing even an underwear, the economy must be in pretty bad shape. And, that indeed is the case! 

Much to the disliking of mainstream economists, these indices are bound to stay as they represent the state of the present economic downturn. Millions of job losses, surge in digital work culture, online education, and the urgent need of protection from the invisible predator might have induced a completely different form of representation and recovery than we are used to in any standard recession. The ‘Lipstick Index' and the 'Underwear Index' are amusing symbols of our economic stress. Wonder, what new indices might be in store in future? Your guess is as good as mine!

84. What if I were to tell you...

Actress Swastika was caught tucking a gold earring
while shopping in Singapore in 2014. 

Although I don’t remember the first time I did it, but It must have been an exhilarating and empowering experience. Else, I wouldn't have pursued the creative act that set me apart from my flock at the college, and even thereafter. I won't confide the number of years I have been into it, but I have never been caught in the act. And, I'm not embarrassed to admit that I have been an amateur shoplifter because there are innumerable others who do so but lack courage to admit. Shoplifting has fascinated people of every nation, race, gender and class ever since the first such incident came to light in London in 1591. I'm sure it must have pre-existed. 

Despite its illegality long established, the fact that there are innumerable others who are as good at it is curiously reassuring. Like copying that all teachers are aware of, shoplifting is every shop keeper's lived experience. In many ways, both are incorrigible human traits requiring a loose, casual energy, a sort of oneness with the environment, like walking or kite flying. No justification is being offered, but the urge is so instinctive that once you do it you feel obliged to carry on. Unlike weight-lifting and power-lifting, it is a pity that shop-lifting doesn't feature as a skill that one could wear with pride in public.    

There are any number of people who do it. I say this not to excuse myself but just so you can visualize that a legion of young, energetic, and intelligent people are into the act. This should not come as a surprise to find Britney Spears, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan topping the list of celebrity shoplifters. Being a woman has its advantages (as well as disadvantages), but why would the rich and famous need to go around? Because shoplifting is not the worst crime in the word, and in a hushed voice most admit to 'feeling guilty for not stealing, as though they were wasting money'. No wonder, many do consider the whole world to be one giant heist.  

Now, don't take this to heart. Viewing it through a moral compass would reflect an incomplete picture because it is not the act per se but the very idea of it that needs to be understood. Let me ask you: Does everyone not feel secretly fraudulent in life? Discreetly, everyone does! It gives a feeling of being an adult, to secure freedom to do as one deems fit. I doubt if not being a shoplifter makes one an upstanding citizen, a sweet person. My sense is that by laboring obsessively over the creative pursuit of shoplifting one hurtles through systems and hierarchies as if these were irrelevant. Indeed many are, and the reason to have no qualms about slipping curios and books into the bag. 

As you begin to disbelievingly wonder if what I told you is true, let me share with you the other side of shoplifting that recently came to light, which is shocking to say the least. Whilst every shoplifter evades being caught, many elderly women in Japan instead resort to petty shoplifting to get arrested. There is a disturbing reason to it, and a reflection on how society treats its elders. Living alone prior to going to prison, these elderly women describe jail as a way of creating for themselves a 'community that they can't get at home'. For them, jail is a sanctuary that provides not only company but also support and care. Hard to believe that shoplifting help some to fight loneliness!

First published in Outlook on May 15, 2022.

83. Making a case for transgender sports league

Transgender: Cast in stone

How can life remain unchanged for those who have been relentless in showering good wishes and blessings on others? As if cast in stone, the attire and demeanor remains fixed with the conspicuous clap being their de facto identity. These distinct traits seem inbuilt into their DNA, though none of them procreate to facilitate its inter-generational transfer. Dressed in glittering dresses, with heavily coated cheap makeup, they crash fancy weddings and birth ceremonies. At crowded intersections, they knock at car windows demanding alms for being outcasts of the society.  

It is hard to miss them, and they scorn at being ignored. In their own mind the hijras hold the society collectively responsible for their transgender plight. Perhaps, the reason for them to seek monetary favors even at the cost of being socially despised. Including transgender and intersex persons, they assert to be looked after for being secluded from the mainstream of existence. This has left them with little option but to use theatrics to their advantage. However, behind their theatrics are often sad stories — of the sex trade and exploitation, cruel and dangerous castrations, being cast out and constantly humiliated. 

UN estimates that up to 1.7 per cent of the world's population are born with intersex traits, and as per 2011 census there were some 480,000 transgender people in India. In most countries around the world, intersex people are subject to social discrimination as the state has failed to assign them a gendered identity. While the Indian Constitution does not exclude transgender persons from its ambit, the social reality for them is loaded with prejudice and disdain. Perhaps the only of a kind landmark ruling in Germany has paved the way for an intersex identity law that allows people to choose the 'diverse' category on official documents. 

One wonders why transgenders have not been socially accepted, and accorded dignified living when they have been in existence ever since? Under traditional culture, transgenders enjoyed a certain degree of respect, and under Mughal rule served many administrative positions and also as the sexless watchdogs of their harems. But the British turned the tables on them, bringing a strict sense of judgment to sexual mores that led to mainstream discomfort beyond the binary of male and female identities. Consequently, they continue to be considered far from equal to the other two genders.

As guided aversion plays on our psyche, we often view those who come knocking at our car windows in crowded intersections as beggars in disguise. Ironically, we miss them for their immense emotional resilience and incredible physical endurance. They persist against unimaginable odds while showering blessings and good wishes on the rest. In recent times, however, few transgenders have jumped the social barricade by establishing themselves as beauticians and politicians. However, for the sizable number who come from lower middle class backgrounds such opportunities are few and far between.  

Little is realized that their inbuilt biology can come good at competitive sports. They carry higher testosterone levels that come in the way of their participation in major sporting events. What stops the world to create a new category that can break the rigid gender binary in competitive events? The Mx category has been designed to include transgender, gender expansive and intersex individuals, but pretty little has been done to implement it. As systems operate within a gender bias, discrimination doesn't end off of the playing field despite the world having gone beyond the binary of only Adam and Eve. 

Even Lord Rama didn't realize that there were other than Adam and Eve when he had exhorted those following their exiled prince into the forest: “Men and women, please wipe your tears and go away.” Most left but a group of people stayed behind, at the edge of the forest, because they were neither men nor women. They were the transgender who waited in the woods for 14 years until Lord Rama returned, which won them a special place in Hindu mythology. Pleased with their devotion, Lord Rama blessed them to bless others on various auspicious occasions like childbirth and marriage.

With the tallest statue of Lord Rama being erected to resurrect mythology, leaving those who were blessed by him to remain unblessed will only leave them muted. As atma nirbharta is the leitmotif of present political dispensation, leaving transgender at the mercy of an indifferent society demands serious consideration. Creating sporting leagues for transgender games will be a fitting tribute to their 4,000 years history.

First published in The Hindu on April 17, 2022.

82. Hair raising defiance!

Hairline Economy

Far from uniting us, the elusive virus has divided the world more than ever. And the sad reality is that the division is being reinforced rather than undermined. As a consequence, the rich are indeed getting richer, the poor are surely getting poorer, women are getting older, and men are losing hair. The other half need not frown however, as the receding hairline forecloses any chance for men to hide their age. Surprisingly, age matters more than the hair loss with a broad absence of concern in such divisive matters.     

No splitting hair in a matter as obvious as this, either way both sexes face hair loss at some point in time. The presence of glaring unisex salons and snazzy hair studios primed in ever increasing numbers have taken the hairline route to uphold the divide. In an ever-expanding capitalist economy, the market is loathed with ideas to strike a difference. Pretty progressive it may seem, as it entices clients to look outwardly groomed as a facade to reflect consumptive appetites that prioritize appearance over their own inner rumblings. A belief has sunk in, but at a huge cost that strengthens the divide. 

I am deliberate in my construction of the narrative, driven by my gratuitous aim of representing those who are rarely counted. My reference here is to the roadside salons, minimalist in their outlook with a chair facing the mirror hung from the boundary wall or the trunk of a shady tree. With rudimentary tools that are no less functional, these ubiquitous salons too contribute to gross domestic product though never feature in our annual economic survey. And on top, it is a net-zero emission activity by the roadside, not far from our doorsteps.  

Driven by discreet thoughts on economy and environment, and inspired by Martin Luther King's invocation to make systemic difference, I literally let my hair down at the open-air salon much to the chagrin of my middle-income household. Stubborn for over five years now, I have let my conviction get the better of the so-called shame to see the difference that can be made in the lives of others by being different. Given its varied implications, it is an affirmative action that gained quite a currency during the pandemic when many queued to use the safe open air option against the more risky confined salons.   

Roadside salons have come off age, virtuous during such infected times. For reasons, I hold one-man salon in high esteem. Imagine, if these were one-woman roadside salons instead! Until such time and till I get to wear a golf cap, to be trimmed under a shady tree shall remain my fascination. To be in nature to get rid of the natural outgrowth is enlightening to say the least. Undaunted by the unusualness of my action, there is enough usefulness to keep me hooked to the engaging activity that a sizeable number of roadside salons have spread under the open sky. When it comes to the matter of hair, I value hairy business that is done more with a purpose, and not profit alone. The stoic in me has its reasons.

Need I say that there is a lot at  stake at the lowest end of the hairline economy. And, as long as  there is no dearth of supplies on the crown I will only let my hair down for the lower end of the hairline economy to grow. I have no intention of stopping to make a difference, and may invite others to join for the sake of a hairy cause. Any takers!

First published in Deccan Herald on June 17, 2022.