Blogging after a long break! Though lots of thoughts were there to pen down, lack of willingness to put it down in writing was a major block. Hope to write more and maybe, slicker posts from now on.
Recently my daughters had a sudden urge to cut their hair (not trim) to the shortest length possible. Cutting waist length hair to shoulder length (in this case, even shorter than that) is a crime in our conservative Tamil brahmin family. The history of maintaining long thick hair goes back to decades in our families and thanks to nuclear family set up today, none of the older generation athais or mamis know about this supposedly sinful act of my kids.
But to think of the privileges of having long lustrous hair makes me feel sorry for my kids. As a kid , I had tresses that were envy of my neighbourhood kids. Whenever there was a festival or function in the family, when kids with shorter hair had to run in search of hairclips to fix the small string of jasmine flowers, I had the privilege of getting the longest string of thickly tied jasmine flowers and I could flaunt it throughout the day without having to worry about hair clips. whenever there was a wedding in the family, elderly women of the family literally were vying with each other to plait my hair and decorate it with different types of kunjalams, beads etc. Once it was done, visitors including strangers used to call me and touch my hair and praise my hairdo. I used to feel like one of the just crowned beauty queens and strut around proudly. During my short stint in Europe too my long hair was the main attraction for the natives and I used to feel on top of the world when people used to stop me and ask me whether it was real hair and how I was maintaining it. Once I even had to give a small demonstration by letting my hair loose and combing it and plaiting it again.
few months back when we had a school reunion, friends who met me were keen to know the current status of my hair and most of them remembered me more for my hair than my other talents.
Although I agree with my daughters who say it is convenient to maintain short hair with all the travel involved and time constraints, I also feel sad that one day they would miss out on wearing fresh jasmine flowers with the traditional kanchivaram silk saree in a typical tamil brahmin wedding.
Recently my daughters had a sudden urge to cut their hair (not trim) to the shortest length possible. Cutting waist length hair to shoulder length (in this case, even shorter than that) is a crime in our conservative Tamil brahmin family. The history of maintaining long thick hair goes back to decades in our families and thanks to nuclear family set up today, none of the older generation athais or mamis know about this supposedly sinful act of my kids.
But to think of the privileges of having long lustrous hair makes me feel sorry for my kids. As a kid , I had tresses that were envy of my neighbourhood kids. Whenever there was a festival or function in the family, when kids with shorter hair had to run in search of hairclips to fix the small string of jasmine flowers, I had the privilege of getting the longest string of thickly tied jasmine flowers and I could flaunt it throughout the day without having to worry about hair clips. whenever there was a wedding in the family, elderly women of the family literally were vying with each other to plait my hair and decorate it with different types of kunjalams, beads etc. Once it was done, visitors including strangers used to call me and touch my hair and praise my hairdo. I used to feel like one of the just crowned beauty queens and strut around proudly. During my short stint in Europe too my long hair was the main attraction for the natives and I used to feel on top of the world when people used to stop me and ask me whether it was real hair and how I was maintaining it. Once I even had to give a small demonstration by letting my hair loose and combing it and plaiting it again.
few months back when we had a school reunion, friends who met me were keen to know the current status of my hair and most of them remembered me more for my hair than my other talents.
Although I agree with my daughters who say it is convenient to maintain short hair with all the travel involved and time constraints, I also feel sad that one day they would miss out on wearing fresh jasmine flowers with the traditional kanchivaram silk saree in a typical tamil brahmin wedding.
