Hairfall!!

In 2012, the umpteenth James Bond film, “Skyfall” was released but I was more concerned about my hairfall.

In my childhood, my mother struggled to style my hair in the innocent way mothers style their child’s hair, trying to give a side parting to my stubborn spikes, which stood straight up from my pate. And over a period of time, though she could not discipline me, she managed to discipline my hair, so much so that I could never give it another style. In my teens I tried so hard to give it a middle parting like a Bollywood hero, but to no avail. Finally I gave up, and lived through my younger years, with a side parting. Though it is very difficult to imagine now, I could grow my mane quite long in those days. But though I desired long hair during school days, when the PT Sir cut my hair since it was a puny 1 cm. too long, by the time I was a young working person, I could not tolerate long hair, due to the sweating, especially during the hot summers. Alas! How short sighted I was, little realising that there would come a time, when I would run short of the very same hair on my almost bald pate and it would hardly require any cutting.

While I could run my fingers through the hair to tidy it up or blow air from my mouth with a slight tilt of the chin, my lower lip slightly pursued on one side, delivering a blast of air to the mane above, impressing girls in the bargain, a small patch of cleared up area started forming on the crown by the time I reached my mid thirties. It was my daughter who first pointed it out to me, drawing a circle on my head with her small fingers, to indicate the cleared up area. As the years went by, the small patch had become like a helicopter landing area, increasing in diameter. First, it was not visible when I look at myself in the mirror, hence it did not much bother me. But slowly and surely, the cleared up area started coming into prominence in the mirror, throwing me headlong into searching for advertisements. Yes advertisements, promising a full head of hair. Sometimes I thought of reaching out to Dr. Patra’s and sometimes to take the benefit of robotic hair transplantation. Sometimes Harsha Bhogle inspired me while sometimes it was that unique person in the advertisement, who took great pride in showing the top view, side view and front view of his own head, before and after the miraculous treatment. Believe me, I appreciated the different views, for the first time in life, so many years after completing Engineering drawing where all such views were the norm.

Why I mentioned “Skyfall” is due to the Debonair Daniel Craig, who Inspite of having an almost bald pate, is the epitome of an Alpha Male personality. And so is Jason Statham, the Salman Khan of Hollywood. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not comparing myself with these excellent entities, but only trying to boost my confidence and saving some hard earned money for rainy days. Hence, like some of the other males, I no longer give any tips to the neighbourhood barber, for cutting my almost non-existent hair. It is done by yours truly with the help of a trimmer, by looking at myself in the bathroom mirror. Believe me, it’s a liberating experience!

Yatindra Tawde