Monday, June 23, 2008

REMEMBERING RAPUNZEL

A few days back I was walking with a friend when we both noticed the very long, oiled, braided and flower-bedecked hair of two women walking in front of us. This is a fairly common sight in our part of the world, where many women still find the time (and have the inclination) to oil and be-flower their tresses. Unlike me, whose shoulder-length tresses are always falling out or turning alarmingly-greybeneath their hennaed-hideout under a hastily put-up perpetual-ponytail (Because of stress? Genetics? What is the bald truth?).

When I was young, my unruly-curly locks were tamed by a succession of severe ‘boys’ cuts’, and it was my secret, rebellious desire to grow-up and grow down my hair till my waist at least, sometimes to be demurely plaited (without the dodgy scent of hair-oil, though), sometimes to be left free (but miraculously tangle-free).

Alas, that was not to be. I have never had the fortune or the fortitude to grow my hair really long. And though I once shocked my family and erstwhile colleagues back in Kolkata when I appeared with temporarily truncated-to-my-ear-length tresses (somebody amiably compared me to a hen shorn of its neck-feathers), my usual hair-length varies, through steps and layers, from neck to shoulder. Rapunzel remains a distant, gradually-turning-grey, dream – to modify Shel Silverstein’s ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan:
“At the age of 35 – (long ago, actually)
I realized I’d never ride –
Though Mumbai –
In a Mercedes –
With the sea-wind in my waist-length hair.”

PRAGMATIC P.S: Can anyone tell me why all the hair that falls with monotonous regularity from my head are always black, and the ones that determinedly cling on are grey?

15 comments:

Piscean Angel said...

hehehe ... same here. :) Btw, Rapunzel was ironically my fave bed-time story as a child.

Piscean Angel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mystic Margarita said...

Don't get me started on hair. Always had fly-away hair and still battling frizz. Tagged you, btw!

jyotsana said...

ha ha ha u just touchd that wound.
once i had long beautiful hair but they hve deserted me now.
was in maharashtra some time back telling myself so this is sucharita's maharashtra

lopa said...

As you know I always had(still have) hair what everybody calls 'kaker basha'(crow's nest).I always envied people with sleek,lusturous,rapunzel like hair which forever eluded me.You had wonderful tresses though, somewhat like Julia Roberts & Arundhati Roy ish.Your answer to---why the grey hair doesn't fall? becoz like wisdom tooth they are wisdom hair,I guess!

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi

PA,

even I loved the rapunzel fable - though it was more of a wish-fulfilment fantasy in my case.

MM,

thanks for tagging me again. I wanted a good anti-frizz, am stuck with aunty-frizz

Jyotsana,

how did you like maharashtra as compared to your part of the country?

lopa,

thanks for the wonderful compliment. and i hope your wise and witty remark about grey hair is correct, though my wisdom-quotient seems to be stagnating

Peter Rozovsky said...

"PRAGMATIC P.S: Can anyone tell me why all the hair that falls with monotonous regularity from my head are always black, and the ones that determinedly cling on are grey?"

Alas, I lack the poetic imagination to offer a suitable answer to this interesting question.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Nancy said...

With luck, I'll have my mother's and grandmother's hair -- not wildly thick but a pretty good head of it lasting throughout life. Why don't the gray ones fall out? I don't know, but I know the old wives' tale that you needn't bother plucking the grays, because when you pluck one, ten more grow in its place. An aside -- my sixteen year old daughter began growing gray at age ten, and now has a sizeable pure white patch at the nape of her neck. No reason why, not even from the doctor.

Jaquanda Rae said...

wow @ nancy. I'm 24 and I have around three greys that I can see, right at the front. Sometimes, I feel proud of them, like I've been through some life changing experiences.

Jaquanda Rae said...

wups, thanks for commenting such. (on my blog).

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi Nancy, Jaquanda,

I seriously hope grey will be the in-colour for hair sometime soon, then I can stop hiding under henna.

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi Peter,

Grey is not a guy-issue, is it? So I guess men are not too bothered about it. Good for them!

Peter Rozovsky said...

I don't know; I'm not ecstatic about my gray hairs.

Sucharita Sarkar said...

I've decided that salt-n-pepper is more distinguished than hideous henna, only thing is that I can't take that definitive step for myself!

tina said...

i remember how i grew my hair down to my thighs in high school for no apparent reason :) it seems like a stage that some filipino girls living in metro manila go through... in high school there were a couple other girls with hair about as long as mine (although not quite as thick). i still see girls in the corridors of my college walking around with wavy tresses cascading thinly down their backs in a loose ponytail; for some strange reason they all look alike to me, especially when i see them from behind.