This post doesn't come from my soul, it probably comes from vanity (whatever left of it).
I am from Kerala, before the age of weather anomalies and drought it was the land of greenery and rivers. The state is blessed with 44 rivers, and as far as I know, water scarcity had never been a matter of contention. This probably is the reason for our obsession with personal hygiene. It is probably the only place in the world where women obsessively wash their hair once or twice a day. And may be there is magic in the water, it doesn't harm the hair at all.
This is how the heroine is presented in many Malayalam films; a beautiful young woman in traditional clothes , her very long hair still damp from bath, her forehead adorned by sandalwood paste and her eyes lined with kohl. She radiates freshness. Every Malayali girl must have been told that this is her identity and that freshness compensates for lack of beauty. And we believed it one hundred percent.
There is one small problem with that conviction and that image of freshness, it has to be followed only in Kerala. If you try to pull the Goddess act in most other places, by washing your hair every day and leaving it damp, pretty soon you will not have enough hair on your head or you will die of pneumonia. One of the two is certain.
When we discuss moving back to Kerala, a number of things come into my mind.
1, I want us to be there for parents
2, I want to be there for this little boy who is in a difficult state of life.
3, I don't want to alienate my son from his roots
4, I want to volunteer for an orphanage a little bit (I know I know, I am much too spoiled to be a handy-woman of any kind, but I can be a tutor :-) )
5, I want to have some sort of a career, if that's an option.
I do mean all of these, one hundred per cent, but there is one more thing which I don't actually voice out, but is of equal importance (at least to me).
Save my hair! at least what ever is left of it!
Really shallow? I know :-)
I do love this song of Kavya Madhavan, look how beautifully fresh or freshly beautiful she looks!
I am from Kerala, before the age of weather anomalies and drought it was the land of greenery and rivers. The state is blessed with 44 rivers, and as far as I know, water scarcity had never been a matter of contention. This probably is the reason for our obsession with personal hygiene. It is probably the only place in the world where women obsessively wash their hair once or twice a day. And may be there is magic in the water, it doesn't harm the hair at all.
This is how the heroine is presented in many Malayalam films; a beautiful young woman in traditional clothes , her very long hair still damp from bath, her forehead adorned by sandalwood paste and her eyes lined with kohl. She radiates freshness. Every Malayali girl must have been told that this is her identity and that freshness compensates for lack of beauty. And we believed it one hundred percent.
There is one small problem with that conviction and that image of freshness, it has to be followed only in Kerala. If you try to pull the Goddess act in most other places, by washing your hair every day and leaving it damp, pretty soon you will not have enough hair on your head or you will die of pneumonia. One of the two is certain.
When we discuss moving back to Kerala, a number of things come into my mind.
1, I want us to be there for parents
2, I want to be there for this little boy who is in a difficult state of life.
3, I don't want to alienate my son from his roots
4, I want to volunteer for an orphanage a little bit (I know I know, I am much too spoiled to be a handy-woman of any kind, but I can be a tutor :-) )
5, I want to have some sort of a career, if that's an option.
I do mean all of these, one hundred per cent, but there is one more thing which I don't actually voice out, but is of equal importance (at least to me).
Save my hair! at least what ever is left of it!
Really shallow? I know :-)
I do love this song of Kavya Madhavan, look how beautifully fresh or freshly beautiful she looks!
