Yay! This is the place where I can complain. Yes, even about the awful haircut I got. For two years now I’ve been trying to grow my hair longer. Under the instruction of my hair-stylist (feel like calling her a barber in the most derogatory tone possible, because that’s how pissed I am), who I trust trusted, I would go to her every 8 weeks for a trim. And surprise, my hair never grew any longer!

This once I took matters under my control. I promised myself, I’d not go for a “trim” for six months. Meanwhile, I oiled my hair once a week (which my “hair-stylist” had forbidden*), religiously. Someone told me to have flax seeds (which is in general good for your health, supposedly) in various forms. And my hair actually felt healthier. So, there it was, even if it was psychosomatic. And lo and behold, my hair was longer by a good 3-4 inches.

About a week ago, I decided it was time for a teeny-weeny clean-up and shaping of ze hair. She complimented, “your hair has grown so  well!” Showed me the half centimeter she was going to get rid off from the front. And when I got home, I realized she has chopped a good 2-3 inches from the back! I was in tears.

My bad (like all else in life, only I was to blame.) I assumed she was going to cut the same length from the back!

I had a flashback, of my engagement day. I told the lady, I wanted very basic make-up because I hate the cakes they layer on you. No, she wouldn’t listen. And I looked like a white, plastic mannequin. Ugh! I have pictures, you will agree. (And no, I will not post them here even if they can be digitized.)

Doesn’t it matter one bit to these people, what the customer wants? And I paid a bomb too! Double unhappiness. Actually manifold than double, because I’m an above average person, when it comes to “being unhappy when money blows up for something I didn’t want.”

Why do I have no say in how I  look? Besides, it brings up way too many other questions. Is there no concept whatever of ‘customer service’? Should I never ever trust a ‘service provider’? I don’t ask to live in Utopia, but is it too much to expect people to understand I want what I want and not what they want. And I’m not even talking about the broader “let me live the way I want” statement.  Dress-designers, hair-dressers, make-up people, please stop telling me what I want to look like.

This is once when I won’t mind being called a drama-queen.

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*her logic, which I bought, was that dirt sticks to you hair when it is oily and thus is unhealthy for your hair.

This my 2.5 year old tattoo.

Like any well-bred, cultured, family-fearing, marwadi woman, I didn’t publicize it too much. So, just imagine how I cringed when bai (my naani, maternal grandma) said, “meetu, what happened to your foot?” Within a fraction of a second, she realized what it was . And her instantaneous reaction was, “I want one too” So that cringe that you had imagined, you can replace that with awe. “A small one, a dot, on my forehead, where I used to put bindi” BUT STILL!

My bai, I always knew, is too cool for her age and time. She’s an entrepreneur at age 74, no less. Her first question to me, whenever we meet is, “how’s your work?” Not “How are you?” Not “How’s jamaai-babu (son-in-law dear)?” Not “How are the kids?” If you are not a marwadi or haven’t known one, you cannot imagine how much it means to be asked about your work before the rest of what is supposed to compose your life. But that is another subject, another time.

My bai, I love her to the core, she is easily one of my favoritest people. My bai, maybe the only person, who brings a tear every time I think of her, just because of the awesome person she is. My bai is not easily impressed, she knows no other way than to call a spade a spade. My bai who I’d hate to disappoint.

My bai wanted a tattoo!!!! and one more !

So, yesterday, finally, two years after she announced it, I took her and my mom (who also wanted a similar permanent dot) to a tattoo artist. Why two years? Amidst general lethargy, I think I wanted to be sure she wanted it. It’s for-life and on-your-face (all pun intended) after all.

And what a fun two hours they were…

The tattoo artist (Rahul) was late by about half an hour, so I took bai, mom and maasi (maternal aunt) to a snazzy coffee shop. Wobbling along with the support of her walking stick, she said, “this place smells bad”. I think it was the smell of some non-vegetarian dishes. But my mom tried, “it’s coffee”. tee-hee-hee. Bai didn’t look convinced. tee-hee-hee-not! For the sake of reference, she doesn’t eat onion and garlic because they smell awful.

I was duly scolded, “what kind of a windfall permits you to spend Rs. 400 on coffee?” But how could I tell her that the way she smacked her lips in appreciation, after every sip of her cold coffee, made every naya paisa worth it?

Later, at the tattoo parlor, the guys took ages to set the whole thing up. And bai was getting impatient. “What are these boys upto? Why so many machines? Why is this guy wearing such a big ear ring? What are these boys upto again?” Just when I was going to remark, that’s how things are in Pune, slow and slower. I remembered just in time that bai is from a teeny-tiny village in Karnataka. “That tattoo street-hawker in the village, I think she died, she doesn’t do her rounds any more. She’d have finished 4 tattoos by now.” HA HA. True that, I’m sure.

Meanwhile, Rahul couldn’t get over the fact that this old woman wanted this “dot” as a tattoo. “What aaji (granny)? Tired of wearing a bindi?” And pat came bai’s reply, “Why are you wearing that obnoxious earing?”

An hour and a few laughs later we came out with two dots and memories, permanent.

(oh yeah! and mom got her tattoo too. )

We took the kids to a sound and light show at Ishanya mall this past weekend. I was fretting in the queue because they were making me spend Rs. 900 (Rs.225 per ticket) for half an hour of laser lights dancing randomly on fountains. “Oh well, the kids have not seen this earlier, so might as well…”

I was pleasantly surprised. The show is not bad at all. For one it has the laser lights making actual outline forms on the water like fish and flowers and bubbles. The projectin of solid figures like human beings and cartoons on the fountains looked cool too, but this was only because this was the first time I saw it. There was nothing arty or creative about them. The same solid figures were also projected on the background wall. And this part was absolutely strictly ok.

What I liked best was the fact that the story being presented made very good use of the medium. So, things were either floating in water or air or cyberspace at most times. The effect created by these images on a range of fountains just fit the bill perfectly.

I hear there is similar stuff in Lumbini Park, Hyderabad. But if you haven’t seen that one and are in Pune for a day or two, this is a good ‘thing-to-do’. Oh yeah, the kids loved it!