His friends called him ‘stubble’… and they did that not just because he had the most endearing stubble in the entire Boys hostel, but because he was able to scratch every itchy part of his body with his stubble! And he quoted Jarod Kintz from his book ‘The Book Title is Invisible’, ‘I enjoy scratching itches on my body with my beard stubble. The worst though is when my lower back itches.’ The funny thing is that it was his stubble-scratch demo that had impressed Sulekha during the College Fest.

‘I’m impressed,’ Sulekha had said.

He replied, ‘I’d love to do this every day of my life for you if it makes you so happy.’

And then gradually he fell in love bit by bit, day by day, until he realised that love isn’t something that must happen to just one person. He reasoned with his own instinct, ‘We have met quite often and she has laughed at my jokes. She must surely also be in love with me.’

He heard his own instinct snigger mercilessly. So he reasoned again, ‘She sits with me and talks to me in every party we attend.’

‘Ha!’ said his instinct.

He persisted, ‘She is the one who calls me up late in the night and talks to me until dawn.’

His instinct simply said, ‘Ask her and you’ll know what she really thinks. Never assume.’ So he decided to ask.

He asked.

She said, ‘Yes, but… I hate that unclean stubble!’

Herbie, whose story I am telling, was ten years my senior and no one was sure what really happened to that relationship.

Did he shave off his stubble? Did they marry?
No idea.
All I know is that our hostel now has no stubble-lover boys.

 

 

 

The stubble debate

The stubble debate

 

 

This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with 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
10 December 2013