Getting in my hair...literally and figuratively

'Wow'...'Is that you maddy?'....'You look corporate'...'You look better''..'Did your wife like it?'...'You look different'...'some how I felt the previous one was better'...'Man! You were the only one who was different around. Not sure why you changed it.'...'But, don't lose those moves man'..'You look average bothways'. These are some of the comments that I received all of last week. But one question, kept coming back to me again and again - 'Why did you do that?'

If you were wondering what this is all about, I just had a hair cut. (About time eh!). After a lot of travel last month, I finally started going to the office pretty regularly. And this was the outcome.

Being different is hard. Holding on to a longer hair is harder. No. I am not referring to the managing part. Its the acceptance part. People find it hard to accept men with long hair. Especially if you are in sales or in Customer Liaison. Some people who were close to me were pretty vocal about it. Others were more considerate. Remember! Its not what your client thinks. Its what your boss think that your clients may think. Besides I am no Michael Jackson . And, I was almost this close in losing my credibility in the official circles.

Coming back to the question of why I did that. I honestly, didn't have an answer. So I went with a standard one. 'The one inside wasn't growing. So I thought let me do something about the one outside. Now, I have decided that one outside should be at the same level as the one inside - small'.

The travails of being a traveller

Sitting on a flight to Denver, I am casting this. I couldn’t find myself doing anything useful anyway. The last two weeks has been a blur, with me going from coast-to-coast – From New York to Phoenix to San Jose to New Jersey…and now to Denver. And, it was laced with bad food, lack of sleep, working over weekend and flying a red-eye. Despite all this, I love travelling. I really do. You always get to learn a thing or two new. See new places. And, most of the time, I end up losing weight. Certainly, not by choice though. Blame it on my vegetarianism. Above all, are my experiences with fellow travelers. Generally, I end up staring at the front seat wondering ‘is there a method to this madness?’

Picture this. Last week, I was sandwiched between two women (now hold your horses) - a 60 year old Mexican grandmother and a middle aged Buddhist nun

‘This go Phoenix? No?’ The Mexican grandmother showed me the ticket.

I looked at the ticket and assured her that she is in the right plane.

‘I crying crying yesterday’ she said with her broken English. For the next 15 minutes she tried feverishly, to make me understand, with a mixture of broken English and Spanish, why she was crying. Finally, she gave up in despair. Guess, I was not smart enough.

I turned around to strike up a conversation with the nun. Fortunately, she spoke English. As usual, the discussion started about the bad weather and moved on to other topics. The next hour and half she explained the two streams of buddhism, her life history, why she chose to be nun, and how her parents reacted to it and so on till I started snoring. I am not sure if she inserted 'cheetos' in my nose, just like they show in the ad.

I just lifted my head after typing this. The lights were switched off and most of the window shutters were down. Barring a select few reading lights, it was dark and pretty quiet. I looked out and saw the snow capped mountains below me. I murmured to myself, 'sometimes silence is really a bliss'.