Hairy tales : the dark side of spontaneity

“ Nice try, Mary Poppins… hair won’t reduce your age” she grinned at me, chuckled and snapped her fingers and walked away. I blinked as I watch her sashaying down the school corridor. It’s not fair, she never gave me the time to explain. Well, who would?? It’s not like every day that suddenly you show up with your usually no fore hair ( read fringe) to something that suddenly ends at your eyebrows…. Well, this is my story and my lesson as well. It reveals the cons of being too spontaneous even though there are many pro’s to the nature.

People usually give me a grin or a smile and an unsaid thought “what an idiot!!” when I go back to the incident that led me to have this unusual fringe with my usual-same-length-hair. The genesis of this crazy hair begins one morning when I unusually got up at 6:30 am to fill my buckets with water. Precious water, it was, during that time when Chandrabhaga and Lohit hostels faced major crisis in the middle of a hot, sticky Delhi monsoon. No thanks to the contractors of the upcoming hostel “Koena”, who in their damp minds, diverted the water pipes of these two hostels instead of taking up their own connection. What we they trying to achieve anyway?? Pocketing the water bills???? Anyway, they gave us enough trouble with the water supply that we have to carry water from outside. I could have sworn that I developed muscles from carrying buckets and buckets of water from outside the hostel to my first-floored, west-winged, end-corridor room. That was the reason why I got up extraordinarily early to fill my buckets during the short hour when water pipes finally become water pipes.

While waiting for the buckets to be filled, I stared at myself in the mirror, still half-asleep. Then came my sudden moment of insanity. I ran back to my room, get a pair of scissors and a comb, came back to the bathroom, stationed myself in front of the mirror and snip snip snip went my fore locks. I looked at myself again in the mirror again, quite content with the mess I have created. I turned off the water tap and went back crawling between my sheets to resume my golden slumber.

An hour later, I looked at myself in the mirror and my heart sank. What have I done??? I tugged at whatever was left of my fore- hair, hoping to make it grow longer under the tugging pressure. I tried pinning it back but it was too short to be done so; I tried parting it and it looked like remains of a burnt curtain!! It looked fine when I plastered it on the sides but it refused to stay there for long. So in the end, I have to settle for the new look that I had created for myself while I was still half asleep.

Well! The reactions that I got were numerous… few of what I can remember are these…
Toi looked at me, smiled, and as polite as she was, said “It’s not that bad. It suits you!” Thanks Toi, my very first encouragement.

Ron looked at me, stared, turned away, stared again, narrowed his eyes creating those little premature wrinkles when he has something on his mind- something that he’d rather not discuss, or do discuss with lots of “it’s only my opinion, you don’t have to pay attention to it!”. But he was mum, or so I thought till he commented on a particular photo with ‘the fringe’ in my orkut account.

Sing Sing laughed at me on my face with a tonsil-exposing burst and a held back "MMMOO HM, MOM"…

Shruti, of all the people told me that there’s something ‘sweet’ about me that day… not necessarily because of my hair.

Apuii giggled with a hilarious “Why??” and couldn’t stop her giggling every time she turns towards my side. I guess she has the right to because she’s my officially- unofficial hair stylist.

My cousin screamed “Are you experimenting?? You’re too old to pull off that look”

My classmates just stared “It’s quite a change”
One particularly bold one remarked, “Hey, you look sixteen again…”

Bawiha, my favorite Kungfu Panda (read Mizo Male Voice) smiled “You look good with that hair”… well, this harmless panda hardly pulls anyone’s leg anyway!! But it hinted me that he must think that, me + fringe is suddenly a plaything when he kept on pinching me and pulling my cheeks during our usual Sunday evening choir practice.

Zoteii, a fellow teacher at Sunday School grinned “It looks nice when you wear it THAT way… no… not totally down. Sweep it on the side, yeah… like that… it looks good” as she desperately tried to help me tone the fringes down on the side.
U Tani, my roommate’s cousin stared “It totally changes your look. You look thinner with it!!!”

U Kuki, as usual squealed “You’re becoming prettier…” You can’t really believe people like U Kuki not because she’s not honest or trustworthy, but because she simply is someone who can’t see the dark side or the uglier side of life!!

It’s quite a change. I was quite hesitant to accept it at first, but now hey, I love my fringes. It’s only hair anyway… and I can change it anytime I want. But for the time being, as much as I dealt with the consequences of sudden actions and spontaneous gestures, I love the experience of dealing with it all. I hope I take enough pictures to help me remember that once upon a time, I had fringes to which almost everyone I know turned to give me a second look, which is, of course, something that I usually don’t get. I guess I’ll just have to get used to hair grazing on my forehead, until then, fringes or no fringes… the butterfly is still the butterfly!!