Straight from childhood..

             I was born straight. Sparse hair but straight nevertheless. In my maternal family I was the only one with that kind of hair (courtesy the paternal genes). The only woman who had such straight hair was my naani (grandmother). She took it upon herself to see that my strands were nourished so that they become as long as hers (a distant dream).
             The relatives never had enough of playing with my hair. The women in the family would stroke my hair and sigh. "Just touch and see, her hair is soo silky to touch." I would get irritated with people always commenting on it. It was not a good thing to say to a child bubbling with energy who would rather like compliments on her climbing skills than on the naturally endowed hair.
             Naani would oil my hair daily and wash it. It would then be dried with the vapors coming from the coconut shells and cumin seeds burning. Till I was 10, I never used a shampoo. It was the shikakai soap which I would use at the most. Growing up years (read the teenage) introduced me to a world of products which so far were forbidden in the kingdom of naani :P
             My first stint with hair problems started the year we had school in the morning. Gone were the days where I would get enough time to wash my hair and dry it at leisure. On days I could wash it, I would be in a hurry to tie it up wet. Lack of care made my soft silky straight hair a mess. It would tangle easily and started coiling at the ends.
             My experiments to straighten it started then. I discovered that if you use enough Hammam soap (read almost half the bar) to wash your hair it would become silky. True fact. I would love to flaunt my hair but it would last only the day on which I washed it with Hammam. I would spend so much time washing my hair with Hammam that it became impossible to wash it during school days! Only when Dad discovered how the soap ran out so early in the month did my foolish trick came out in the bright. What followed was lecture on how I was damaging my hair with so much alkalinity.
             During holidays I visited  naani and she was distraught looking at my hair. "See I told you not to play out in the afternoons. The sweat is doing it!" she would lecture. The fact that I was almost 12 and done with playing out at noon did not deter her. She first introduced me to a shampoo. Sunsilk black was the one she used. I remember it well because I was overjoyed that I would finally use a shampoo and get the perfect shiny hair as shown in the advertisement.
            My joy was short lived because I soon learnt that the shampoo could do little to get my straight hair back. The maternal genes were dominating my strands and soon they turned more wavy then I would like them to. The hair in front were short and would roll back giving me almost  curly hair in the front like Juhi Chawla in the olden days :( So upset I became with this turn of events that I used a scissor to cut them off and ended up looking ridiculous :P
           My last 2 years in school were the worst in terms of my hair. Mom would plait them in the morning and by the time I came home and freed them, they were as curvy as the sea waves. The front hair was as irritating as ever.
           One of the saddest things to hear, second only to "You have become fat" is "What happened to your hair??" The very people who would swoon over my hair now never missed a chance to remind me what my hair was like! There's some wicked pleasure we all derive from the downfall of people who have what we don't have..
          I considered straightening my hair for the Class 10 send-off but Mom was against it. The friendly neighborhood beautician was ready to do it at a low cost but still I couldn't get a nod from my dear mother. I decided to take matters into my hand. Armed with a shampoo, a conditioner, a towel and the iron at home, I set out to practice the making of a straight hair at home.
                                                 
           I washed my hair with the shampoo and then applied the rinsing conditioner. Then I went a step further and applied a leave in conditioner. I wrapped my hair in the towel and ran the iron over the ends of my hair. It was tough doing it all alone with the constant fear of burning my scalp. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
          Although the hair looked visibly longer it looked like a broom. Within a  few hours my hair became all sticky and I had to wash it the next day. Thank goodness I didn't do it on the send off day :P
         I left all thoughts of straightening my hair until I went to my cousin who had this awesome hair straightener. She volunteered to straighten my hair and voila my hair never looked longer. I loved my hair and couldn't stop twirling and eyeing the length in the mirror. I made sure that mom saw it enough so that I could convince her to buy one for me. No tricks ever work with dear mom when it comes to hair altering.
                                              
         With a heavy heart I compromised with the fact that I m not getting a straightener and secretly resolved that I would buy one as soon as I can with my own money :P
          This was 4 years back. Then came the trend when almost everyone straightened their hair. From blonde brooms to poker straight to the natural (read permanent) straightening. Everywhere you turn, everywhere you see-  straight hair in your face (quite literally if you travel in local trains).
          What we forget is that-beautiful hair comes from caring for them. By caring, it does not imply not pushing your hair behind the ears lest the straightened hair curve. It does not mean not washing your hair for days so that the temporary straight hair doesn't wear off. It does not mean subjecting the hair to ridiculous amounts of sweating because you fear rolling it up will spoil the effect.
         Your hair is beautiful as it is. All you need is right care. There are innumerable products which provide this care. Choose your pick.
          Wouldn't it be ridiculous if capsicum wanted to be red in color so that it could look like tomato? What's the point of everyone going for a straight hair?
          I personally feel that your hair type would be great if you take proper care of it. Straightening can be kept for special occasions but then its better to do it at a parlor than harass the hell out of that pretty hair at home!
         After regularly oiling, caring and massaging my scalp well and protecting it from harsh chemicals, my hair now feels soft and silky. I have begun to accept and love the waves :D
         I feel that when S ruffles my hair and I don't reach for the comb to straighten my hair :D Running my fingers over my hair sorts them out :D I m wavy happy :D

P.S: This post is written for Sunsilk The Straight Hair Experiment.
http://www.indiblogger.in/topic.php?topic=70

       

Love, adventure and miracle

                         It is said that the 3rd and the 5th year of a relation are the most crucial ones. I don't know how these two years were chosen but there is a ring of reality to it. While the 3rd year is the testing time as the romance takes a backseat and other accompanying factors of a relation make themselves prominent, the 5th year is the stable but the year which mostly decides if you are going to stay together.

                        Contrary to what is believed, in a long distance relation you know a person for what he or she is. Leaving the first 3 months, me and S have fought every year :P Fight matlab the serious ones where it comes to even thinking of leaving each other. The 3rd was the worse and most trying of our relation. Even though the 4th year had set in, signs of trouble were still brewing. 

                        Everytime I m away from S ( that is not able to talk to him), I get very clingy. I want to talk to him for long till I actually leave and then again talk on and on when I return back. It somehow makes the separation bearable. 

                        I was leaving for a Christmas holiday to a town near the coast. This time I didn't keep calling and telling him how much I will miss him. I wondered if our relation had lost the spark. He was too occupied with his work and I didn't want to bring up any hard questions right then. I let all the love and related insecurities fall in the back drop and went on with the holiday which was going to be too much fun.

                        We had gone on a group picnic. The group consisted of my family, my father's friends' family and a few relatives of theirs. We first had to attend a marriage and then the rest of the days were for holidaying. The mehendi, leg pulling, the display of affection and the marriage were making me restless. I kept dreaming of how it would be for me and S. Once in a while the current problems crept into my mind and I toughened myself from weaving such dreams. 

                       After a couple of days, we headed to Kaup beach. We were staying in a  house of one of the family. Since the village is essentially of fishermen, the people are expert swimmers. In the wee hours of morning, the kids in the family decided to go to the beach which was like hardly 5 minute walk from the house. My father's friend offered to accompany us to the beach much to the relief of my parents. I and my brother were the only non swimmers in the group. 

                      When we reached the beach, I dreaded the waters. It was an open sea with a sloping beach. While we were on the beach, it began raining. The winds blew wildly at us and the waves lapping calmly now roared. I held on to my brother as the rest of the kids went to take a dip in the waters. We were content wetting our feet by the shore. The uncle who had accompanied himself got into the waters and displayed some of his sharp swimming abitlites. 

                      I stayed at the shore with my camera in one hand. I was clicking away the beautiful virgin beach. There was no one in sight other than our group. The other kids accompanying us began to persuade my brother to get into the water. Though I m scared of entering rough waters my brother is otherwise a phobic to open waters! Uncle asked me to relax as he would hold him all the while. Uncle took him into the waters which were now at the level of my brother's chest (my brother is taller to me :P ). I kept my gaze on them skeptically. As promised Uncle held him tightly and then brought him back to the shore. My brother was very happy with this experience and he told me how liberating it was to be in the waters. He nudged me to try it too. 

                    Otherwise a very careful me, I decided to throw caution to the winds and get on with this which was no less than an adventure for me. I m only a few inches above 5 feet and heavy at that. That day adventure got the better of me and I went into the waters. As I walked deeper, holding Uncle's hand in one hand and a younger boy from the group in the other hand the water seemed harmless. I was enjoying when suddenly a taller wave came near me. Since Uncle and the other boy were both taller than me, it really didn't affect them much. But me! I was impacted by this wave so much that I went off balance. I held on to dear life by groping for Uncle's hand but nothing came in my reach. The water was over me when I completely shut my eyes. It was pitch dark.
                                                     

                    For what was less than a second, I saw one image flash before me. It was of S giving me the sweetest of his smiles before our first kiss and suddenly I wanted to live. The water was forceful and I tried to make myself stand again. The water was receding back and I could have been swept with it had Uncle not reached hold of me and balanced me back. 

                    My father had followed us to the beach and had watched me nearly drowning helplessly. I came out of the water spitting the salty water. I had had enough of water on this trip! 

                    I went back to the house with my father. After a long shower, a longer sermon by Mommy on why she forbids us to go into the waters, I finally got time for myself. I took out my cellphone from my bag and switched it on. It greeted me with the welcome wallpaper " Life is beautiful, you are lucky".. The alarm went off. It was 25th of December. When my cellphone was brand new I had set a note "Merry Christmas, wish for a gift" just to check the function. I smiled to myself. Strange! How come I had not set it off ? What a childish way it was to check a mobile function but right at that moment it made me smile.. What could I wish for?
                    We often say "Only a miracle can save the relation", in my case it did. The miracle of life and the miracle of nature which gave me less than a second to actually know what I needed deep within.. That smile of S to be with me all my life..
                                                      

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