When the hairline receedeth

A clump of hair was caught in the hood of the jacket after coming back from one of those deep freeze long haul flights. Turns out the hair that is already clinging on for dear life is easily uprooted, much like the stumps after a batsman misses a Malinga yorker. 

Unfortunately, I cannot come up with an analogy for the gray hair. 

So there were two choices.. start to dye the hair and comb what is left acros the head or get rid of it.

It was an easy decision. Nothing says "Do I look like I give a $hit" like a Tibetian Monk look. 

Jr. also decided to join in the haircut experience with me. So we took some prefies and postfies.

Looks like I have aged 2 years in the first half of 2015. Now it feels like some huge burden has been removed!

Jr. looks a lot younger than she is. At first she was complaining and all teary eyed because of her "new look". Then she realized it is easier to manage this hair and it does look cute and was all smiles. 

They are all getting used to my new look though.

On the plus side, my smile is widening now with the hairline. So we are all good!

Hair styling..

Photographs on the iPhone taken with a few days..

One was of the kids, just before they went to school with matching hair bands and shirts. It was pure coincidence that they had those flower bands that were an exact match! 

The second was me tying up a towel which had a ziploc bag with crushed ice folded in, to combat a severe migraine that was part of a food poisoning (or allergy) attack last Friday. One targets the forehead and the other one the lower back of the head above the neck. Somehow ice in both these places helps fight the urge to throw up...

Never found the real trigger for the attack, but there was a lot of throwing up, no Yoga for six days and an almost complete system shut down. Yoga has helped make these attacks less frequent, but sometimes there are a few instances where the symptoms hit pretty hard. 

The good news is that things are back to normal again.. but my stylish Head gear has to be documented for posterity, no?!

A weekend in Pictures

This weekend saw a lot of activity in spite of me being down Friday and Saturday. 

Everything that happened in and out of the house was a cheerful experience.

We did the Varalakshmi pooja dinner Friday and the whole house was full of people, standing room only at one point. It was great to see the smiling faces in huddled conversations and the kids running around gleefully (if there is such a word).

Then we attended a surprise birthday party for my friend who turned 40. Yes, this year is "no one escapes the big Four O" year for our batch. There are only 4 guys I know from our batch who are waiting to celebrate within the next few months. The cake.. Oh What a cake! We have seen a lot of unique cakes over the years but this cake takes the cake!

Came home for some rest and took my parents to Shoreline park so they could watch the geese, pelicans, etc. and get some sun. It was good to get some fresh air and sit on a park bench and get more grounded with the thought processes. Kind of like going into your hard drive and killing all those threads that are running in the background!

After a long time we skipped Yoga entirely on the weekend. The body needed a lot more water and rebalancing before being confident that there wont be any dizziness once in the room. Sometimes, got to give a break when a break is due!

This morning we went and attended a "Kalyana Utsavam" at a friends house. It is a function where they conduct a marriage ceremony for the god and goddess just like the real wedding ceremony for the bride and groom. It is kind of like the "wedding rehearsal" that people conduct in marriages here which gives a "what to expect when your kids get married" before the actual wedding. The priest did a good job of explaining what was being done in a step by step way, something that more priests need to do to set the context for today's generation so they appreciate the reasoning behind the customs.

My parents enjoyed it thoroughly because they don't get to attend outside functions during their visit here but in India they are going to some function or other on a weekly basis. For me, it was great attending a function after a long time where I was not the one doing the prayer! Sometimes it is good to be in the audience.

Then more rest after some heavy food and off we went to get haircuts, an activity that was postponed by the parents demand that it wait till all the functions were done..

Both the kids now sport short hair. A big help once school starts in a few weeks as we will be going crazy with the post swim class hair dry routine and the early morning "combing" ritual which will take an extra 5 minutes.

Now an eventful weekend comes to a close and we begin yet another busy week for everyone in the family!

Happy Monday, here we come!

We just cannot wait...

Found the little one walking around the house like this today.

Rubber bands, hair clips, fake dangling clip on earrings to match pink fake hair..

Kept saying to myself "God, what have we done! She is brave on the outside but inside she does feel the lack of hair!"

Well, it was a one time deal and it will be forgotten in a month. We can already put a clip through the hair.

Had a heart to heart with the girl and she is okay. Why?

"In two months my hair will be growing faster than Akka and will be longer than Akka! So I am okay. This is just pretend for now"

Now all we can pray for is that it does start to grow faster.

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Not sure about tonsure?

The little one bravely did the tonsuring ceremony. She was a real champ....

A day after losing her hair she was going through doubts. Kept trying to put flowers, rubberbands on her hair. It would break our heart to see her do this..

Then my mom put the little one on her lap and explained how giving your hair to god will only get you a lot more hair a lot faster as he will bless you etc. etc. and she was back to her beaming self.

Life is an illusion, but having hair is a big part of that illusion!

We now know exactly the way daddy Narayanan is going to bald over the next two years. Asked my mom why Ummachhi (god) did not bless me with a lot more hair a lot faster...

Apparently the illusion works only for kids under the age of five!

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