Dad, will you Shave?

‘This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette” #WillYouShave

My dad has always tried to be smart, smarter and smartest. There were times when he used to come to school to pick me up, on Saturdays. A few of my schoolmates have told me, looking at him, that he looks too young for his age. Ouch! They didn't know the kind of self obsessed session I had to go through when I share it with him. He is a bit too much with handling compliments. He is 58 now and still wears jeans every single day. You might ask me what the connection is, but he wears jeans not just because that's what is comfortable for him but because he finds the formal pants meant for "UNCLES" as if he is not one, yet. He always tries to compete with my cousins and not people of his age when it comes to clothing and fashion. I wonder what tough time he is going to give my son, if I have one, in the future. I pity that yet to be born son of mine so much for this.

He has got a lot of complements for his young looks. You can never see a grey hair peering through his semi bald head or his thick mush. He never fails to dye it black; religious maintenance of the youth look. If only he hadn't lost a little hair now due to colouring, I am sure he would look a lot younger.

He shaves every day; be it summer or winter; be it a holiday or a weekday; be it a good day or a predicted sad day, he will never fail to shave. But every year he will go on fast and vrath for Sabari Malai. That's the only time he doesn't care how he looks and completely become a devotee of Lord Ayyapa. He doesn't wear jeans but a kavi dothi, doesn't shave even a single day for 45 days in a row; doesn't dye his hair, bear or the mush; doesn't wear shoes. I respect him a lot for being so devotional and god fearing. He wouldn't even go to theatres during the days of vrath. He would come back early home to do pooja. My sister and I would also get the Santhanam applied on our foreheads, do the pooja along, ring the bell and take the Arathi. Mom would not let us touch her till she finishes cooking for dad, so we would threaten her that we would touch her while she prepares dinner for dad. It used to be like a small family game for us. But along with the prayers, devotion and fun my dad would grow a long white beard, apply Santhanam and look like a Saint during those days. 45 days long Vrat gets over after he visits Shabari malai and gets back. My sister and I would long so much to see my dad again after 5 days trip to malai. Once he is back and does all the practices to remove mala, we would jump to him. We would lie on his arm, each of us on one side on the bed and listen to the stories of the trip. He wouldn't have slept on the bed for 45 days. Later we would wait for him to shave and become our dad; the young and handsome one. He wouldn't do that shaving at home, only that one, every day he would do it at home.

I used to wait at the entrance to see my dad come back from the salon without the white beard that revealed his age. The moment he comes back I would pounce on him and rub his cheeks; my dad is the smartest dad in the whole world, feeling this. It was not just us but my mom too would wait eagerly to see her handsome husband without the beard. She would definitely not show her eagerness to us, which would be obvious from her face.

Recently, when he had gone to my sister-in-law's son's birthday party with the beard as it was his Vrath time, none of my in-laws found it easy to recognize him.

So I understood that the young looks of my dad was not because he looked young but because he shaved every day. So credits must not go to him but to his razor that did the job right.