They Shaved Off Their Trademark Beards

Writing in response to acknowledgement of the tag for #WillYouShave activity by one of my blogger friend Rakesh Ranjan in his post http://electoworld999.blogspot.in/2014/12/shave-will-you.html

My bro (a charming boy in his late teens) loved sporting permanent stubble which I almost hated looking at. Every time he styled himself standing in front of the mirror with spiky hair style and those coarse prickly hair on his face, I grumbled uncontrollably on him many times a day. But moving away from the culture of daily shaving, he paid no attention to my words and retaliated at times saying, "Oh di, pleaaaase grow up, stubble is no longer scruffy. Come with me to the college n I'll show you how we get extra attention with short beards...."  The conversation always remained as open as we would find something new to counterattack each other next time  .... 
 
Days were passing the same way. But as they say 'God has His own way of getting things done" ;) I remember the day when he directly came to me after college and uttered, "jo aap chahti thi wo aaj ho hi gaya" . Keeping my book aside, I looked at him with a question mark on my face and he explained, "our college has started a week-long campaign Shave Off Your Trademark Beard for the students to discourage keeping artfully trimmed permanent stubble that has gone viral among boys & it has spoiled their otherwise groomed personality. You see I've been selected as one of the lead activists for that. And my professor wants to see my clean shaven face tomorrow..."  A silent listener till now, I burst into laughter and winked at him sympathetically...

As the campaign kicked off, almost 2000 students flushed off their stylized beard and came out with smooth faces like our chocolaty Bollywood heroes. My bro with his teammates was actually happy with the response they got and felt like accomplishing a task. Though he didn't acknowledge & vocalized it to me, but I knew him inside out so could read his unspoken expressions :)

The beard story had become months old now & he had got completely comfortable with his NEW  look. Even I was happy to see him that way.... In the course of the term, he had reached his final semester of B.Tech and was preparing seriously for upcoming Campus Placement sessions by some reputed firms/companies. The day when topping the list of few desirable employers, he was complimented by one of the interview panel as the 'most well-groomed candidate", he knew whom to thank for that :)

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