The magical (or deadly) locks?? THE CHOICE IS OURS.

Water+Melanin+lipid+traces of minerals (no no u can’t mine there, it’s not uranium ) =the human hair. We all know it is just a dead cell and ironically wanted to keep it lively, healthy, shiny and bouncing, with all the vital signs of life.

We have bid goodbyes to good old grandma’s daily oiling ceremony and those long ribboned plaited hairs are safe  in the school albums far from the reach of desperate eyes. Now we have no time for that oiling process and believe things are easy at a  hair spas, for oil, steam and protein treatments. We bond and rebond with the lovely locks, we straighten, smoothen, curl, perm, iron and blow dry, Ufh!!

We can’t just plait them because they are cropped, bobbed, fringed, layered, streaked, textured,coloured...encyclopaedia on human hair, here I come. Chop chop of the barber shops were replaced by the pancaked beauty parlours, then the cool unisex saloons and now the exclusively serious and caring trichology centres. The so called dead tissue is given a life by various treatments- laser, phyto, thermal and cryo treatments to name a few. Yes they are treated in the cellular- molecular levels for everyone has a custom  made hair, yes very special and unique like your fingerprint swears a hair stylist.

No more sticky lemon, yogurt, egg , mehendi, amla , shikai packs for the Sunday mid morning, pre brunch long matinee showers, the latest secret hair treatments are done  in the laboratory or can be got done a complete therapy pack from the drug stores after a online counselling with your trichologist based on your individual hair density test.

The parachute oil and meera shiakai, the natives of Doordharsan aren’t the only products on the shelves these days. The hair care section (rather floor) of our hyper markets is flooded with rows of shampoos, conditioners, leave on, serums, hair setting gels, hair sprays etc. The hair accessory in a girl’s handbag is no more just a comb and a few clips and a scarf for those bad hair days but hair brush, sheers, barrettes, snap, claw, alligator, banana hair clips, hair pins and may be a swaroski studded tiara, isn’t very girl a star today?? Finally the answer for that human size tote bag very girl carries...Ha ha ha.

It is high time that exclusive courses for hair science are introduced at the higher secondary level in the country. Think twice, do you really want your little girl to make a doc or an engineer or a lawyer...please move aside that fringe that is covering a major part of your eyesight and read between the lines.

PS: For all those unlucky ones whose are blessed with a receeding hair line like me and hair that carpet a better area of your room than your dumb head, stops all those grandma recipes, they aren’t going to work anymore. Nor are the keratinlogy e book  or the trichology centre.

We are destined for a better livelihood without the mane matters because over 1000 tonnes of human hair that lakhs of devotees offer at the richest temple in our country is generating unimaginable revenue. So either sport the new all clear look (be a trend setter) or trade place with a barber...millionaires’ go chop chop!!

Territoriality is a passe'...?

Historians believe with civilisation fades territoriality and psychologists say that the world is small place. But do we humans hold good to this? If yes, the need for that personal space is altogether a different thing?!!

In an era where Bollywood and cricket make India, together rather the world united(Of course kolaveri is added to the list recently)...are we together? Together and alone as the big SEVEN or together and alone as the 28+7 which span few kilometres in the world map, single and ready to mingle but *conditions apply.

I am a an the ...XYZ.

If you  think how can a small geographical boundary create a mental territory in us, think again, we have come down from joint family to a nuclear family to a mere I? Did the atlas and map limit our thoughts to just these? Isn’t the everyday pledge at school supposed to teach us something else? Guess it should be modified to make us say” The world is my home; all humans are my kith and kin...” I guess we are more familiar to racial wars, ethnic wars and the honorary killings than the generations of barbaric uncivilised human beings who lived in caves and the dumb human beings who built thinnais and shelters for the unknown guests. Today thinnais and aangans are seen in museums where we have a model Indian home, and we have moved to live in modular boxed houses with a Wi-Fi connection.

Thanks to YouTube and Facebook where we can like (yes LIKE) the posts about human discrimination and share them on our walls and build walls around us. The” like” is supposed to mean our participation and support for the cause explains by facebook philic friend. It is a safe territory, completely virtual. (The latest territory that you can lock with passwords and that you don’t your need scents and marks anymore)

Man is a social animal begins all our Civics classes at school, (Social-networking animals says a half of my mind) who is an integral part of the society, state, country, world and universe. In the quest to conquer the world and embrace globalisation, why did we forget we belong to the same species that did have a SIXTH sense and believed in the respect and dignity of fella human beings? We keep reminders in our mobile phones about -THE FAMILY TIME (which is  a maximum of a few minutes every week). We talk about need of a personal space for everybody in a nuclear family and but are friends and neighbours with them online, how ironical?

Territories are no more geographical boundaries; they are becoming the emotional and psychological boundaries that are made by us, for us and of us but include only me (strictly singular). It is like, I am my world and the world is mine sans every other being. The present state of hummmm.... man being , cross my heart and hope to die.

what's in a name?


Though borrowed from Shakespeare, i know i have asked this question a million times. Having born during days when girls were named after flowers, rivers and goddess' and growing up when Aiswarya and Sushmita was a household names( of course with Rai and Sen added in some cases) , and when every movie had Pooja s and Priya s as the female characters, i was me.-VALAIKODI.


Thanks to my dads frequent transfers and the linguistic richness of India, i was rechristened every time. It was "Valeer koodi....Vaaalai kadi.. and sumtimes a much better Malarkodi down south to "Balle kudi" to my punjabi colonel principal to Mr.Valaikodi for a Sinhale professor, that was the ultimatum(  i know there is more to come). Friends called me "bent flag", "creeper","net"  and what not translations from any local language-dialect possible.The intelligent ones made tongue twisters like "Valaikodi Kolaivadi" .I take credits for being the cause for budding singers among friends who made this- valaikodi valaikodi..nee oru sema kadi kadi (oh oh the english translations are not necessary here) sung to the tunes of Masakali Masakali- thank you Ryckordec.( Thats what we called ourselves in college-Ten on the ritcher scale, another what so ever name)

May be it is all this attention, all the mocking, teasing, giggling and that two second blink everyone gave before reading out my name made me realize, Oh yes i am the only Valaikodi i know. A unique name with strong tamil literary sense to it, named interestingly. No one forgets me, as i am not the many priya s they know(No offences to all of you out there). 

A name gives you a identity, people relate to you by it, remember you by it. A name, a pet name, a nick name, a pen name and what not. People had names, pets were given names, cars and gadgets were named, Teddy bears were named and now cyclones and hurricanes are Katrina, Mala, Nargis and our of course not to forget our local Thane, names are everywhere. The elaborate naming ceremonies, the letters from grandparents that contained names to the googling for names on net, the search never ends.

 So whenever or where ever i hear a conversation on names and naming, I just cant keep mum. With things going globolocal  and the hollywood going Neytiri, Eytucan and Eywa and all our Harvinders going Harvey i am all excited about the next gen names, which will be multi lingual, unisex and what not. So whats your name?-Namesake

PS- Mummy and Daddy ,thanks for THE NAME.