"The report of my death was an exaggeration." -- Mark Twain (after reading his own obituary)

I must be dead. What am I saying? I AM dead for the last 6 years or so… if I go by an advertisement that I saw in The Hindu. Advanced Hair Studio claims that ‘You live only once… No Hair, No Life’.

Years back when my wife saw me with frizzy hair (just on the sides of my head since I had gone bald in the centre and back) after a scooter ride, she told me that I would look hip if I shave my head and sport a Pritish Nandy look. I did so and more than being concerned about looking modish, I found it absolutely comfortable. There's no more the need to comb or primp my hair. Plus, it's hard to get a bad haircut :-). When it's hot, a quick splash of water cools me right down, but won't keep dripping into my eyes. No more shampoo tears. I save money on Hair Care products. I can go on and on about the benefits. But the most important was ‘Attention Seeking’…

Seeking attention? Yes, sporting a balding look is a memorable one. Many people find it interesting, and I find myself fielding questions about the how's and why's. Particularly women find it very sexy. The reason is simple. When women think of sexy guys, they have a lot of options to choose from: Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Jason Stathom and Sylvester Stallone from the West to John Abraham, Shahid, Hrithik and Salman here in India. All assertive and dominating in looks. But when women think about sexy bald dudes, there are only a few: Jean Luc Picard and Bruce Willis from US and Pritish Nandy here. So, if you are bald, you have much less competition. In fact there is a possibility that women will think that you are also macho because most of the recent Hollywood’s sexy, six-packs are also bald. From Jason Statham to Vin Diesel to Chris Daughtry to Bruce Willis. Maybe the competition is hotting up for baldies. But the consolation is the link between the clean dome and the 'ACTION' hero image.

As usual I have digressed and this looks like a sequel to my earlier post titled 'Bald is beautiful'. Let me come back to my death.

Tamil writer Sujatha wrote that at 70 he will see the obituary column regularly in the newspaper to feel comfortable.  If he reads about people having died at a younger age (less than himself), he will feel happy that he is still alive. If it is about people of a ripened age, he will say to himself that he has a few more years to live. Now for me there is no comfort in knowing that I had died some 6 years back. I wanted to have a few words of consolation and hence told my son, Prashanth that I died few years back at a young age. Pat came his reply. “Nonsense. Only the good die young”. In a way it was a consolation... that probably I am still alive.  I went to my wife and said: “I looked at this ad. I died 6 years ago”. She nodded and said: “I am not surprised. The last 6 years you have never been of any use to me or to others in this house”.

I remember having attended a spiritual discourse in which someone asked “Guruji… Is there life after death?” and he replied, “First see whether you have LIFE in your life. We will later talk about life after death”. Ok…ok. Probably this is what the ad meant. I am happy to know that I am alive. I now have to infuse LIFE into my life. Let me begin by drinking to that.