Who cares for you in the city?

Living in the city is hectic, everyone is in a rush to make a little more money, spend a little more time with family and friends, find a better house or exercise a little. In all this chaos all of us have little time to care for people around us, as we barely get by caring for our immediate family and friends. But once in a while you find such a person in the most surprising of places or situations. I found one such person who went way beyond his call of duty to care for my well being. My barber.

I go to a local barber where I shave my head (yes I shave my head of the little hair that grudgingly grows on my head), shave my stubble and get a head massage with the cooling red 'navratna' oil. For all of this I pay ninety rupees!

And I don't particularly care who shaves me, how choosy can one want to be when all wants is to take off all the hair on ones head and off ones face. But often there is there is this young guy (all of them are young guys incidentally) who does the needful very well without attempting to strike up a conversation. I hate it when the person who should be focusing on the blade that is dancing all over my scalp or my face or my throat wants to talk or watch the television in the background.

But the other day he surprised me. After having finished shaving my stubble clean he said with utmost earnestly 'You are becoming darker.' I almost fell off my chair. Now for all of those who know me, know that I am already dark. And neither do I nor do the people I am associated with care two hoots about skin color. But obviously my barber did.

Now I was completely lost for words and all I managed to do was grin sheepishly and shrug my shoulders. My barber took that as a sign and got to work. He asked me to sit back and relax and quickly lathered up my face with soap and warm water. After getting that off my face he dropped a tablespoon of some pink colored cream and vigorously massaged that into my face. Then he wiped all of that gook with a warm towel and then he was back with soap and water.

After all that scrubbing, to his delight and my embarrassment my face was two shades lighter. I wanted to run from that place. But before I could he said 'Do get a facial once a month. It shall remove all your dead skin and exfoliate it.'

Now that is definitely caring!

Why blog?

Blogging has been like my flirtation with the gym. Every once in a while I look at myself in the mirror and see curves where there should be none and I realize that my body is growing older and fatter. I hook up with a friend, discover a moderately priced gym close by and pay my membership for one whole year, completely convinced that I am going to see this through, defy gravity and have all the fat that has been hanging down worked into well shaped muscle.

I go to the gym for one whole week very religiously at my scheduled time. And then something happens, completely avoidable and insignificant, and I call up my friend telling him (it is always a him, and now I wonder if things would be different if it is a her) that I cannot make it to the gym. This happens a couple of times in week two and by the end of that week I am convinced that the gym and me are not meant for each other.

Blogging, or writing for that matter, has had a similar relationship with me. Every once in a while I see how my career is affected by gravity and realize that I am mentally becoming older and must do something 'different and creative'. And a friend (and this time it is always a her) convinces me that I should write. So I spend some time at my laptop actually writing, but mostly thinking about writing (if there was a device that could convert thought to words I would be an extremely prolific writer). This goes well for a week and then there is a minor interruption, and all through the second week, similar interruptions happen, and by the end of the second week all vain ambitions of winning the next Booker are lost. Maybe I should find a female gym partner and a male friend to encourage me to write!

So here I am again starting off a fresh clean blog. But do I believe it will any different this time? Yes, I do. I have begun to exercise again, no gym for me this time and no friend to exercise with. So what is my motivation? My insomnia. We shall talk about it some other time. My return to writing too has a similar motive - my insomnia. Well I must do something with all those I hours I spend in bed at nights unable to sleep other than toss and turn. So, writing shall be my activity for the nights when my insomnia keeps me awake.

So what I am going to write about? Couple of things actually with no literary ambitions -

1. My views on human society and how humans behave more like their simian ancestors today than ever before

2. My narrow understanding and biased appreciation of art with the hope that erudite people stumble upon my writing, and talk to me about things I do not know and understand

So cheers and drop by!