The story of a newly bald guy...

S: I had always wanted to shave my head once. Just like that. Without any reason.
Me: Oh great! I've also thought the same.
S: Then let's shave our head together. How about this sunday?
Me: Why wait for sunday?

This is how my story started. Almost instantly, we were at the barber shop. We were both very nervous as it was our first time. We absolutely had no clue how it is done, and what the end results would be. What made the matter worse was this...
S: Are you sure there won't be cuts and bleeding? Please do it carefully, it's our first time.
Barber (unamused): You talk a lot.
To be honest, this really made us both scared. But we were now glued to the seats. Walking back wasn't a option. We both looked at each other, smiled bleakly, and just wished for everything to go well.

It was now the time for the barber's tools to act and do their magic. Slowly and slowly, I could feel the razor shave through my head. I could feel the cool breeze making it's presence felt on my newly exposed skin. All through this while I was going through a series of thoughts. To be honest, it wasn't really easy for me to lift my eyes up into the mirror and glance at the undone work. It was going through a moment of mixed emotions. I had a great feeling that at last it's finally happening. But at the same time you had to build up that courage to look into that mirror. Trust me, it wasn't easy. But when it was done, Is that really me?  - was all I thought. I couldn't help but started smiling seeing myself into the mirror. My both end of the lips were as far as possible. It was finally done, and I loved the feeling. I had 2-3 small cuts, but all those burning sensations were diluted by the happiness of this achievement.

Seeing each other in almost the same hairstyle, we both couldn't help but laugh at each other. We finally got what we had wished for. It was time to walk back.
I could see three of my batch-mates coming towards us. We both couldn't help but continuously looked at them and were laughing, making the ends of our lips poles apart. I could make out from their expression, Why are these two stranger bald guys staring us and laughing? It was when they were almost at a feet's distance, they realized what had happened. I still can't forget their jaw-dropping expression. All three of them, mouth open with shock, words refusing to come out. 
Continuing our endless walk from the college gate to the hostel, we faced 3 other group of friends, all having the same jaw-dropping expression and with no words to say.

All through the way to my room we gathered that un-wanted attention. To be really honest, I didn't liked it. That wasn't something I had expected before getting this thing done. Everywhere you go, you'll have people asking you as to why have you done this? I mean, I just shaved my head, people shave their stubble everyday, I just shaved a bit more, what's the big deal? I was sick of that after a point of time.

But this felt really good. When you've done something like this you feel light. Getting rid of that extra weight at the top of your head, really makes you feel light, allowing new thoughts to pour in. The cool breeze that would touch your newly exposed skin, is something really different, something that you'll love, in a strange way. Last time I shaved my head was back when I was an infant. It felt really strange touching your own head with your hand. Trust me. You'll know what I mean if you go through/have gone through this. I don't know how to explain this, but it was different, and difficult to do. The newly exposed wasn't used to this touching.

But apart from all this, your life does really change in small-small ways. First thing you do after shaving your head, is you take a shower. And then the first time water is poured onto your bald head, you'll have a strange feeling, you won't understand what's happening but it would feel something is different. And then you'll realize that now water isn't trapped in your hair, cause you have no hair anymore. All that you pour on your head, comes directly down. This might sound stupid to those with hair, but this is something you'll notice for sure. 
And then, while drying up your head with your towel - you just won't be able to do that. Cause with that stubble you'll have enormous amount of friction on your head that even rubbing you towel to the back would seem impossible. And same is while wearing your t-shirt. You t-shirt would just be stuck with your head. These are all the fun experiences.

But all of this made me realize one thing. Shaved heads are often associated with chemotherapy - a treatment for cancer which results into hair loss as one of its side effects. A person suffering from cancer is already suffering through a lot. And then after the treatment, with the shaven head, there is this hurdle of walking into the society with that shaved head. I got to share this part,although this isn't even an iota what they actually go through. You'll have people treating you differently, teasing you - verbally as well as physically, just because you don't look like what most people looks like. Just because you don't have hair on your head.
I don't understand why is there such a taboo for shaved heads? Why is shaving head considered as something bad? Something different?
I have no answer for this. 
But I've got my lesson, though I didn't took it in the wrong sense, but it might sound bad to many. So, I guess one should take that into consideration and Ban the Bald jokes. 

On the whole, this was a fun experience to be honest. And I guess once in a while everyone should try something like this - something different, something unique. Trust me, you won't regret it. You'll have an hell of an experience!

God knows for how long...

Me: So, you're coming right?

He: Absolutely! I'll come over and pick you up at 5?

Me: Cool! And...

He: What?

Me: Please come all alone, don't bring your stubble along.

He: Aah.. Alright! See you.

He was the laziest of all. No matter how many times I tell him to shave, he just won't. I don't know what the problem is with most of the guys. They just won't shave. I mean, who could walk around with that extra weight on that face? The face, covered with hair all over. Ew. How do they even survive. Don't they feel unhygienic themselves? I just feel disgusting when I'm around a hairy face. 

I'm in Hyderabad, away from him as I had a 4 month long job assignment. He was missing me, and I knew that. One fine day, just like any other day, I was walking back from my office to my home, it was a walking distance, and suddenly he comes infront me in the middle of the street. I was literally taken aback. It took time for me to recognize him as the street wasn't properly lit and the fact that I actually wasn't expecting him there. It took time for me to actually gulp the fact that he had actually come over for the weekend over there, just to surprise me. But then there was this thing which ruined everything. I still remember the conversation.

Me: Oh my god! What a surprise this is!

He: Indeed! I came specially for you just to come here so that we can spend our time together. Just you and me.

Me: Aww.. How lovely.

We walked together for sometime on the streets, until we reached a well lit area. And then I saw what I had missed all this while. A full grown beard. And the reason? He was just too lazy. The very second I knew he'd been glued to his Xbox all this while. He didn't even remembered the last time he took a bath. 

Then, I did something for which I regretted a bit later. I just walked off from there. No answers to his why's. I didn't answered his phone, nether replied to his texts. I felt really bad that day for what I did. He specially came for me, and all I did was to show my tantrums. But I know that was necessary. I had to act hard-stoned that day. He got the message that day and he went back to Bangalore.

That was another day. Eventually, he consoled me, sent a dozen of his shaved photos, and we eventually got back to good terms. Today was the first time I was going to meet him after that day. I was going back to Bangalore today and he was going to come and pick me up. I just hoped he remembered the message.

I got down from the bus, he was standing right in front of me. And that was a shock, a surprise rather. He was completely shaved. Not a single hair on his cute cheek. He looked the best that day. I just was so happy. 

Me: Why can't you be like this all the time?

He: I've changed. I'll be like this forever, for you.

God knows for how long, I thought. 

5 days later..

... he had a full grown beard, and the last time he bathed was when India won a match against Pakistan.

*sigh*

PS: This is a work of fiction.

This post is a part of this 'Shave or Crave' movement in association with BlogAdda.com.

Time to celebrate!

May 2009: It was that time when Google was integrating all it's services to be accessed through one common Google account. This meant all of Google's service, including GMail, Picasa, Calender among many, could be used with one single Google account. Going through all the services, there was one thing that caught my attention - Blogger.

Share your life online with a blog - it's quick, easy and free -- that's how Google defines Blogger. I quickly signed up for it, and had no idea what to do with it next, but it somehow looked appealing. I was 14 then. In the following 6 months, once or twice I tried to figure out what was it exactly, and all I could infer was that it was a writing space, where you can share your writings to the world.

At about the same time, I was a video reviewer for the Metacafe, where I would receive videos and had to review it for approval. I then received two videos, dealing with the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. Those two 10 minute videos, left an impact on me, and left me to wonder about it's authenticity. Curious to get answers, I went through a thorough research over the internet. Visiting almost any link that I could find. Checking the facts which were shown in the video, almost everything that I could find.

December 2009: This thorough research led to my first blog post. Casacio - literally meaning random, was the name I had zeroed down to, for the blog which would have a wide range of topics, a blog which believed that life is too short to blog about just one thing. I had no idea what to post on Blogger, and what not to, but I did went ahead with the idea. After writing it down and publishing it, this thing really excited me. Seeing visitors, even though there were hardly any, made me feel good. I started sharing the link to my blog randomly all over like a maniac, to everyone I could fine, everyone (I still haven't stopped this habit!).

It was the time of my 10th class pre-boards. Studying whole day wasn't an option for me, specially after such a thing was going on. After some 10-15 days, during late December, I really wanted to post something as I had got the hang of it. In the following week, I posted 6 posts, all about some random ideologies going through me. This went on for some time in the following months where I posted about random ideas that came through.

I wasn't really serious about blogging at that point of time. There were time I didn't wrote anything for days, or even months, when one fine day I feel to write something, and Kaboom, a post in a couple of months. All this while, I was the one who used to write, and again, I was the one who used to read them. I had really less visitors, but for me, it wasn't about visitors, I wrote cause I wanted to write. 

May 2011: In all of this posting on the blog, an important part for me has been to read, to read other's blog. This had two benefits - it is said the more you read, the more you learn, and I guess this has played a major role in my process of learning; other being, the obvious, you open yourself to a whole new range of ideas. On a similar day, I was going through some blog, where I read on one of the widget - member of the Indiblogger community. And like always, I had no better work to do, and googled what Indiblogger was.I had no idea what I had found, literally, I just blankly registered up there, cause it had the words Indi(an) and Blogger.

December 2011: This was the time I really made an effort to actually know what Indiblogger was all about. And from then on, it changed the way I took blogging, forever!

This was the place where I got to meet so many other bloggers. I got to learn quite a lot of things from all of them. And to be honest, this is the place which made me realize the true potential of blogging. This was when I got to know how serious this can get. This was when my whole perspective towards blogging was changed. I began to take this more seriously, and to be frank, I started enjoying this even more! This was the time when I started getting visitors in relatively larger numbers. Though this was never meant to be about the amount of visitors, but this was really encouraging, and I mean it. 
Since then, there has been no turning back. 

And now, after completing four years of blogging, I've reached a milestone, which will always be unforgettable. Trust me, from the time I started this, I had never imagined  that I'll manage to reach this far. What started out just as an little experiment to try out something which Google had to offer, would come along this far was something which I hadn't expected. And in fact, this is quite surprising even for me. 
I know there is a long way ahead, but this is something really special for me.

Casacio completes 10000 pageviews! 

It has been a long journey. Full of enjoyment and learning. I've come across numerous people, and their different ideas and completely different point of views. It has been a wonderful experience working on all of those posts. Right from following the Commonwealth Games, to saluting Rebecca Black. From complete breakdown of intuition, to the lingo kid. From proving that everyone of us is unique through vedic astrology and mathematics, to light the night. And not to forget those contests held regularly. All of these, it had been a great learning experience. 

This has in a way changed me; changed me the way I put forth my thoughts. Changed the way I express myself. Changed my perspective towards my surroundings. This is now completely integrated into me. This is my way of life now.  There is a lot that I've learned, and still continuing to do so. And I'm enjoying this even more, like never before. 

I just want to thank you guys for making this come this far and hope there are more such occasions in the future that I could cherish upon.