Hair today, gone tomorrow?

I am bored with my hair. It’s grown waay too long and though sometimes it looks lovely, sometimes it looks like this:

Which is scary, to say the least. Though my friend Sonal doesn’t think so. She thinks I should keep my hair as it is & come and pose outside her office “to drive in more business”, like a whore-y live advertisement I’m thinking. But I refrain from saying it out aloud.

Sonal is my sister’s childhood friend and as time passed and age gaps seemingly decreased, we too became friends. Recently though, I’ve not been spending too much time with her and hence received the very grave threat: “I’ll demote you from friend back to sister-of-friend status”.

I hence put my life on hold and made time for what turned out to be a great fun lunch with Sonal.

Among other things, we berated the waiting staff (at Dynasty, Santa Cruz) for taking our side plates and giving them to the people at the table next to us (seriously, wt?!). Ok fine, maybe I was the one doing all the berating, but still. We also discussed my hair.

I have recently come up with a brilliant idea and was very excited to share it with Sonal. The conversation that ensued went something like this:

Me: “I’ve decided to shave my head bald and give all my hair to wig makers for chemo patients”.

Sonal, in between snickering: “Stop behaving like Britney Spears”

Me, slightly offended: “Britney shaved her head because she’s psycho. I’m being benevolent here”

Sonal: “What, like Rakhi Sawant giving computers to inmates at Arthur Road Jail?”

Though I am appalled by the people my “friend” chooses to compare me to, I ignore the comment and instead we have a tangential conversation what the inmates at Arthur Road Jail are doing with Rakhi’s computers. Surfing for porn? Running their ‘Dhandas’ via coded email?

We shortly resume original conversation.

Me: “I’m determined to cut my hair. And why cut it half way and lose out on the almost waist length it’s grown to - might as well let someone else enjoy the fruit of my many months of hair harvesting”

Sonal, with tone of weary mother to silly child: “Mell, have you heard of Tirupati?”

I shake my head, no.

“No, one needs your hair. They get enough of it at Tirupati”

“How? What do you mean?”

“Well, women go there and specifically shave their heads as a “mannat” - a sacrifice of sorts for their families etc”

“Mannat!” I exclaim, triumphantly! “That’s exactly what I want to do. I want to sacrifice my hair for a chemo patient.”

Sonal is now shaking her head, not sure she should bother making me understand anymore.

We finish our meal and converse about a million things under the sun before we depart. I am surprised when she leaves me with this parting shot:

“The only ‘Mannat’ you’re familiar with, is the one in Bandra“.

Sigh. Britney, Rakhi & now this. I’m now thinking, I should demote Sonal to friend-of-sister status.

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Meanwhile what do you think I should do with my hair? Perhaps I’ll tabulate your answers & cut my hair or not based on what my loyal blog readers/ commenters say!!

Tags: Britney Spears, Chemo, Hair, Human Hair Wigs, Mannat, Rakhi-Sawant, Shah-Rukh-Khan, SRK, Tirupati