Life Experiments | The Beard Cult

           

           Life has pretty much been a 'going with the (family) wind' as far as decisions related to how I looked like. To be more precise, it was to the extent of 'when I had to trim my hair' to 'what's the style I must keep' so that it adheres to each of our tastes (for me it should be trendy, for my mom it should be neat and presentable while for my granny it should befit her taste). After running through these permutations and combinations, my hairdo has more or less been a 'summer cut' (and yeah it is summer throughout the year in this part of the world) and a clean shave for a great part of my life. Fast forward to the present here I am sporting a beard for almost two years now. And for this 'crime' I have been judged all the sorts ranging from people telling me that I look like a Muslim to asking me if I am expecting a baby. I have greatly developed a thick skin to just plainly ignore all of those.

            However there has been this one constant comment that I used to get on my (bearded) face which I couldn't ignore. It goes on like this. A grownup brings up a naughty / not-eating child nearby and points and refers to me telling "If you don't behave / eat properly then I will hand you over to this boochandi (apparently a slang for child trafficker)". And unsurprisingly more often than not the child obliges and turns orderly. They further this to asking me to be more 'normal' so that it appeals to the kids. I used to suggest to some of those grownups that the children do not form an opinion themselves and it is generally our coercing that makes them eventually react similarly.

            I used to wonder how much such visual stereotyping creates a pattern in children's minds which they carry on in their lives and tend to form opinions on lot of things thereafter based on their (acquired) idiotic reasoning while examining the visual aspect of things. Hence when I had my baby (we call him Chubbu) I was very clear on two things. One, not to shave just because people suggested that my shaving would make Chubbu more comfortable with me and two, not to impose any appearance based perceptive habits into him. 

             Cut the chase to after 9 months of Chubbu's birth and I was at a cousin's baby shower and family ceremonies are where I am mostly the odd one out off all the people who turn up. Chubbu had come with me for this event as he having already set a precedent of being really comfortable to unfamiliar faces and get along real easily. As expected a lot of folks wanted to have some Chubbu time for themselves and he was shunting from one aunt to another and ended up landing up in the hands of an uncle. For no reason whatsoever he started to cry out loud. I was surprised and hence I took over to pacify him. He was cool in no time and I passed him onto another cousin who was the only respite for me with respect to the beard stuff in that gathering. Chubbu was pretty cool with him as well just as much as he was with other women folks.  

             It has been so far so good and then something extraordinary happened. Once again Chubbu was passed on by the round-robin way to that same uncle and he burst out crying instantly and a thought struck to me almost instantly. Just to confirm the premise of my reasoning I passed him onto this cousin of mine again and he was back to playful ways. To prove the point quite convincingly I passed him onto this same uncle again and he started to cry. I was now very clear on this newfound knowledge. Therefore after pacifying him I passed onto to several uncles and he cried almost instantly at the hands of almost every one of those folks.

             It was hence proven without an iota of doubt that Chubbu has developed a resistance and displeasure to be in the company of 'clean shaven' men. Amidst kids who were made to be scared of 'boochandi' here's a baby who was displeased to be in the company of those 'neat and charming' people and not because he was conditioned to but because he chose himself to be so.

--

இதோ ஒரு விதி தகர்த்தோம்

Lost & Found

The following story is a real life incident shared for 

The Mahindra XUV500 "Incredible Story Contest" 

by Indiblogger

                           "It was July 2010 when I got the HTC  Touch Viva phone for myself and it was a period where not many people recognized HTC as a brand of mobile and interpreted HTC as some korean handset. It was my habit to fiddle around with the Windows with some third-party softwares and apps and my HTC with Windows Mobile on it was no different as well. The happy period with this phone existed until the 20th of Nov, 2011 when I carelessly left the phone at the dining hall of my cousin's marriage reception. As it happens I did not realize that for more than half an hour and my search at every corner of the venue was in vain and I could not locate my mobile. I was so cross at myself for my carelessness. The phone was much invaluable for its rich contact info (for which I did not have a back-up) more than the cost of the mobile.

         I blocked the SIM and stayed disconnected without a mobile for a week, which my mom could not tolerate any further cos she was used to calling me at least thrice daily and she could not stay without doing that. Hence I finally got a duplicate SIM and was back online on the GSM world with a spare mobile of my friend. I explored loads of mobile handset reviews and maybe cos of my association with HTC or I did not know why exactly , I was so obsessed with the HTC models and was just pondering over which handset to choose and the HD7s was so very impressive for me and started checking out on who would offer that to me at the lowest price. With the history of my previous phone and the cost of the phone I was eying for now, the elders back home, in their usual predictable manner raised questions like  "Why go for another costly phone and maybe lose it again?"  "Why not go for a basic mobile handset?" etc etc..!!! With so many against in me buying the HD7s, I was deferring the buying process.

       It was 3rd Jan,2012 evening and my mom showed me her mobile asking me to have a look at a weird SMS she had got the previous day. The SMS sent a shock through my spine as it remainded me of those days when I had browsed the internet for my Windows Mobile apps and had installed a software that claimed to send an SMS of our choice to the mobile number of our choice if someone removes my SIM and puts another SIM. The SMS had the exact content which I had specified in that software when I had installed it. As I did not test if it was working, I was very unclear on how it is working after a month of me having lost it. I was in a state of "Will this happen for sure and will I get back my mobile?". With those thoughts running repeatedly our part of investigation started and within an hour we had the complete details of the SIM. We approached the police and they promised us that they will recover the phone in a day or two and get it to us and advised us not to contact that number.

       With the thoughts of the HTC reverberating in the mind, day in and day out I could not sleep well since the day I saw that SMS. I had a chance to go to my cousins' place (in who's marriage reception I had lost the mobile) and I told them of the developments about my HTC. My uncle who was less observant till then suddenly inquired again on the name and address of the SIM. When he heard it again he exclaimed that there was person at his workplace with the same name and similar area of residence. We checked out the reception video and the time he came to the reception and had dinner coincided with the time I had left my mobile. With the new development, my uncle promised me that he will check the details of that person and if it matches, its going to be a piece of cake to recover from him. With a sigh of some relief I went back home. The next day he called me and said none of the info which I had given matched with the company records of the person with the same name and hence he concluded that probably its a mere coincidence and asked to me push with the police to recover the mobile soon.

     The police (as one would come to know with experience) were postponing the errand stating they would do the next day, for some three days. After having been fed up of their response, I told another uncle of mine regarding the status and he said he would call the number directly and recover the mobile soon. I got the news after a few hours that the man promised to return the mobile asap. On asking for the details of how he was nabbed, my uncle narrated that he had called the person and threatened him stating that his entire call history since the time he put on this SIM has been traced and he had no chance to escape. The guy on the other side pleaded not guilty stating that he was working at a reputed firm for years and had a clean track record. To his misfortune the company he mentioned was indeed the same company where my cousin's father worked and he was indeed the same guy whom we already suspected from the reception video. My uncle called that guy again with my other uncle and that person's boss listening to the conversation, staying muted on the line and him without knowing who were on the line mentioned the same thing to my uncle and then both of them came off the mute and a deal was struck and he pleaded guilty finally and promised to return the phone and phew....here I am back with my good old HTC yet again....!!!"