Root cause analysis

Having denied my femininity for a good part of my life, there came an age when I had to admit to being a girl. No, I am not talking about puberty! That was easier. I am talking of the time when I realised that, very unfortunately, I am attracted to boys, and being a tom boy alas isn't one of the better means to further my cause. Thus began the journey of discovering my feminine side, the boon and bane of being a woman. Here I focus on the Hair, from head to toe.

Before coming to the problems of hair, it is only fair to acknowledge how as females we are fortunate in certain matters.

1. We can wear our hair in different styles. The guys also have the privilege to wear it in whichever way they want, but unfortunately, they lack the privilege of not being mocked upon when they decide to defy evolution by attempting to resemble a rooster, a porcupine, or the shaggy dog
2. The problem of receding hairline in not that predominant. So no unnaturally big looking foreheads for us!
3. In case we are hit by the above male syndrome, we can conveniently hide behind a fringe which in fact produces the reverse effect of making us look younger. In fact we can hide any kind of baldness better behind the long hair. So no need for desperate attempts to force the hair behind left ear to cross over the deserted moor in the center to meet their brethren inhabiting behind the right ear.

Now come the cons!

1. If you have it, you better flaunt it!
   We are under a constant pressure to actually sport the very hair styles we are so privileged to have the choices of. This overchoice doesn't let us leave our hair at peace at the only place where if left alone it would be the least trouble
2. Where it is legitimate, it is supposed to look pretty!
   We have to go through the ritual of getting the eye brows done every fortnight/ month. Not that we run the risk of losing count of them if they grow into a uni-brow, it is about shaping them in unnatural arcs and curves for us to look pretty.
3.  Problem of plenty
   "Hair" should be made to see the bikini clad models to make it understand its rightful place. But no! It decides to go unruly and to rule all over, marking its mighty kingdom like in the map of Age of Empires!

Hair is much like the men in our lives. Whether you like it or not you have to make your truce and live with it. So, the faster we learn to tame it, the better!

Immaculate innocence!

Yesterday on my way to office, my car stopped at a traffic signal. As always, there were beggars hovering around different cars in the hope of some charity. A girl 8 - 10 years old, with sooty skin and brown-black hair tied in a braid, stood on the other side of the road. She had a 1 year old balanced between her left arm and chest, and was inclined to the left to support the weight with her lighter right leg slightly outstretched. She looked at me from a distance with narrowed eyes, scrunched her face into an expression of helplessness and extended her hand to ask for money. I smiled and shook my head to refuse. To my surprise, she grinned back and copied my head shake with a playful expression and questioning eyes, asking me to reconsider. I repeated my gesture with a wider smile which she returned with even a toothier one. After the drill repeated for a couple more times, she decided to step up the game. To her toothy smile, she added the swaying of her lighter right foot, synchronising the head sways to match the foot, like a kid adamant to convince her parents into buying  a toy on display. The next moment, the signal turned green. On seeing my car move, she stopped and merely raised her hand and waived me a good bye. 

Mark of a true consultant: Beyond the boundaries of work

11 simple rules which will help you gauge if you've successfully transformed into a true consultant, and managed to take it a notch further, beyond the realms of your work life. I tried hard to refrain to 10, for it sounds well thought of and lends a closure which the oddity of 11 does not (but maybe with the auspicious number 11, I have the blessings of the divine to write this)! My fellow consultants in other firms might not be directly familiar with some phrases common at my work place, but I am quite confident that there exists similar jargon which they would identify with, for this is the very essence of consulting. For the non-consultants, hope you amuse yourselves with the follies of one of the most coveted professions of the day.

1. You end up using the words "strategic", "value add", "insight" when in want for a better word
2. You have an opinion, deeply soaked in logic, on almost every matter, the triviality of which is never such to make you do away with your obligation to enlighten
3. In conversations of consequence, be it at work or otherwise, you've a definite number of points which are almost invariably also categorised in logical buckets
4. In elaborate conversations, especially those where your mom is narrating highly banal events with special attention to minuteness so you don't fall short of anything but a vivid visualisation of the whole play, you frantically try to get to the "so-what" of the matter, and would rather talk with exec summaries
5. You find yourself applying the 80-20 rule to any task at hand (maximum impact with minimum work). Everyone follows this principle, it's just that we now prefer to allude to it a bit more intellectually
6. You schedule your social events through outlook invites (yet to hit us Indians in full swing). My calendar once showed a "Let's catch up over coffee" slot of 2 hours.
7. You are grieved and almost sympathetic for the unprivileged others unable to rise above trifle issues and discover your truely enlightened way of existence
8. You always manage to find a correction or a potential  for improvement in everyone's work or opinion
9. When corrected by your PL, you ensure you defiantly push-back to show your strong and unfaltering point of view, including on those rare occasions when you feel you've in fact erred and your PL has some legitimacy in his arguments
10. You belong to the rare species which very flamboyantly pulls out an Amex card at pay booths; and when declined, curse the antiquity of the system while you search for your other cards
11.  For events involving a large group, you ensure that you arrive at a fair and informed decision by seeking everyone's opinion (each one of which is of course duly challenged) through a long thread of mails which inevitably involves a few questionnaires and polls

A keen eye would surely remark how very strategically I have omitted any reference to one's self-belief in being an acute judge of human behaviour (and even keener ones would notice the circularity of the argument).

I am sure no one will nod in strong agreement to my observations, but if your face twisted in a grin more than once recalling some past instances, I guess I have hit the right note!

For the grave, but a tone not so grave

We bid good byes,
with a twinkle more than sorrow in our eyes,
to the looney lass as she came to be called,
for all the bathos and melodrama she hauled.

She enjoyed her baguette, French cheese and wine,
pray she lets others rest in peace o divine!

Today she had a word keep

Such was the fervor,
such was the prowess,
with which she steadied along.
All alone, her steps headlong,
she embarked on the deserted moor.

Her eyes steadfast on her way,
urgency gaping from her face.
She made her way through the bogs,
reverberating with euphonious songs.
Ah! What redolent enclave was it!
Full of animals gamboling around,
enticing her to play along.
Alas! She could not stop.
No surely not today,
Today she had a word keep,
Oh! She had a promise to meet!

But her steps did falter,
Oh her mind sure did wander!
What mesmerising sight it was,
ornate with cascades, and waterfalls.
Oh how enthralled was she!
But wish only she could stop for a while!
She gave it one long wistful glance,
and promised this wasn't her last chance.
But today she had no more time to spare,
today she had a word to keep,
today she had a promise to meet!

And ahead she went along her way,
garnering the iridescent views in her head.
For one day she would be free to come,
to revel in the world she cherished so much.
Oh that day would surely come,
the day when she has no more words to keep,
the day she has no more promises to meet!

A tribute

I was grieved to read of the demise of Maqbool Fida(M F) Husain, the great patron of art that India is proud to have begotten. He started gaining recognition as a painter in early 1940s. His contributions extend beyond his paintings to films like Through the Eyes of a Painter, the much talked about Gaja Gamini, and the controversial Meenakshi, the tail of three cities. He was honored with the Padma Shri(1955), Padma Bhushan(1973) and Padma Vibhushan(1991) by the Government of India. He was offered the citizenship of Quatar in 2010, which he had accepted. It is a pity that the while the artist was being acclaimed world over, he faced rejections from his own motherland, eventually ending his life in exile. He had gone on a self-imposed exile in 2006 after the cataclysm that followed the exhibition of Bharat Mata naked(depicted here).
The newspaper went beyond the news to compare him with the erstwhile artists and painters like Picasso, whose works were also controverted like that of Mr. Hussain. Both ran common on the grounds that despite being the great artists that they were, they were exiled from their respective countries for the obscenity of their arts. This link became important to the extent that despite their different styles of painting, Mr. Hussain received the appellation The Picasso of India. He had been in controversy for long for the profanity of portraying Indian deities in nudity. But like Picasso, this never deterred him from living his passions up till the end. It is easy to appreciate such acts of audacity, but to be the one who undertakes them is difficult. To pursue your dreams, your passion, without the apprehension of how well it would be taken, requires a certain amount of dedication to the cause and belief. But more than that, it is one's zeal to live for oneself, to enjoy life doing what one loves that lets one going, oblivious to such deterrents. Where decrepitude sinks into people as early as 40, this great connoisseur was busy creating art till his last.
His life motivates me to do live and celebrate my own life in a way that I can also be cherished, not in terms of the name or recognition, but in a way that when I look back, I am inspired by my own self. Given a chance to be able to relive those years, I would be privileged to live it as myself. I am reminded of the lines from a poem titled The Seven Stages by Shakespear saying
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
Yes, the death of the great artist is indeed a loss to us, but this player had played his part so well that it is a proud end, a culmination which has left many inceptions behind.

The best Birthday Bash

This is a tribute to my lobby gang for making yesterday the best birthday ever. You magically converted the reluctance of leaving the teens and the dreading to spend the whole day working to a beautiful, magnificent, colorful and joyous celebration. Opening the door to a dark room, lit more by ten smiling faces than the candles was indeed a pleasant surprise. The smile that the unanimous cry of happy birthday had triggered refuses to leave even now.
Every aspect had been well thought of, and perfectly executed. Be it the décor, the card, the beautiful messages, the perfect caricatures, the oooo.., and the “unknown” mermaid for which tipu had even practiced, or the ingenious thought of keeping me away from the room. Not once did I suspect the foul play in execution under my nose. Blowing those balloons, and waiting locked up in the dark room for me to come. Every bit of it was so thoughtful and touching.
Thank you for making me live the moments of the antecedent years again, when birthdays were about being the queen for the day, all eyes doting on you, people trying hard to make you feel special, celebrations, balloons, colors and sparkles. (Wish the snow spray had also worked.) It was overwhelming to see the kids again and become one myself. This has been the best thing that anyone has done for me. Putting in so much efforts to create such cherishable moments of my life.