‘The parcel,’ I said, pointing to the opened packet on my study table, ‘has just delivered a part of me.’ My friend Anoop was aghast. He thought he had just heard words that were macabre and waited with eyes open for the rest of the gory details. He, however, did hesitatingly ask, ‘Hope you aren’t hurt.’

I silently weighed his concern in my mind and said, ‘Yes, I am. Terribly hurt. Though not in a way that needs me to seek medical help.’

‘Thank God!’

‘But I’m hurt,’ I insisted, ‘for I’ve lost what I’ve loved.’

‘What? Don’t tell me Shikha has finally decided to say no to you.’

‘Shikha has agreed to marry me,’ I said. Anoop gave an exasperated look and said, ‘I give up. I cannot understand this mystery.’

I said, ‘Shikha came to my room a couple of days back and said in a firm tone – I hate that smelly stubble. Come with me. She then took me to a barber’s shop and said, ‘Get in there and come out to bowl me over with a clean-shaven look!’

‘Sounds interesting,’ said Anoop, ‘and so you went in and said bye-bye to your friend of ten years? How cruel!’

‘I did and I came out to get a friend for life!’ I said and went on, ‘We went out to see a movie and then when I returned late in the night after dinner, I was surprised to see a parcel with my name on it lying outside the door.’

‘Go on…’ said Anoop.

‘I opened the parcel and inside was a small bottle with some of my shaved-off stubble and a note from Shikha that said: “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” – Rumi. The note was signed by her.’

part and parcel

This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda.

Tagging my friend UMA and ANITA
Accepting tags by UMA

 

This post is also a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

My series of 10 posts on smelly stubbles:

ONE
Poets write, stubbles don’t

Poets write, stubbles don’t

TWO
Autobiography of that unclean stubble

Autobiography of that unclean stubble

THREE
There’s more to stubble than you really know

There’s more to stubble than you really know

FOUR
The stubble debate

The stubble debate

FIVE
The tricky twins!

The tricky twins!

SIX
Men in pursuit

Men in pursuit

SEVEN
Part and parcel

Part and parcel

EIGHT
Twenty-four years later

Twenty-four years later

NINE
We-can-we-will
https://passey.info/2013/12/we-can-we-will/ 

TEN
This happened at three in the morning

This happened at three in the morning

 

 

 

 

Arvind Passey
08 December 2013