Ram and Shyam were twins. They were both fond of playing tricks on their friends and teachers. Ram had a preference for a stubble and Shyam shaved daily. But there were days when they reversed this… and when this happened, the world was in a tizzy! So obviously, their favourite one was pretending to be the other when trapped.

‘You are getting naughtier, Ram. I’m going to tell your mother about this prank.’

‘Sir, I’m Shyam. I haven’t shaved for two days and you know I can’t see my brother in trouble.’

Their world was a crazy world of innocent and fun-loving subterfuge. Together they had transformed the concept of shaving or not shaving into an inscrutable enigma… a drama… an intrigue!

But then came along Seeta. Ram fell in love with her. He was clean-shaven and the world knows that his clean-shaven looks bowled her over! Two days later Seeta met him in the market and he pretended he had never met her. She was hurt. In fact when she said ‘Hi!’ to him he turned around and asked, ‘Do I know you, Ma’am?’ What she didn’t know was that she had met Shyam who was now clean-shaven and Ram had a treacherous stubble.

The very next day as she sat brooding in the park where she met ram often, she heard a voice, ‘Thank God you’re here! I was searching for you.’

She turned and was face-to-face with Ram sporting a stubble that had a 7-day growth.

‘You hurt me yesterday.’

‘Yesterday?’ said Ram in a bewildered tone.

‘Yes, yesterday. And pull off these smelly tufts on your face,’ she said.

Ram suddenly understood what had happened. He smiled and explained the mystery of his twin brother and asked him to come.

Then Seeta too smiled and said, ‘Let me too call Geeta, my twin sister, here.’

The tricky twins

The tricky twins

 

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
31 December 2013