From Medusa to Medulla

Time flew. The snakes on Medusa’s hair got tired of unable to moult and shrivelled in their multiple and unused moults and died. Medusa herself was not in great health and tottered to the Gorgon sisters and whispered, ‘I’ll soon be gone. Be gone forever my friends. You know my story and you also know how my once beautiful flowing hair was transformed into hideous lumps with snake-heads that have constantly whined and cribbed up here on my head. All this was because of Athena, that powerful but vain Greek Goddess.’ 

The Gorgon sisters had heard her story three trillion times ever since she had been sent to live with them and their blindness, and chorused, ‘Yes, Medusa, we know your story. We know about the curse of Athena. We know how you had been given your horrid form because you had insulted Athena inside her own temple. And we also know that anyone who sees you would have turned into stone. So you were sent here to live with us.’ 

‘I thank you,’ whispered an old and wrinkled Medusa, and went on, ‘You have helped me with all sorts of charms and ointments but the horrid snake-heads on my hair tufts wouldn’t let any of them to the hair roots and they remain enervated and dead.’ 

Medusa then gave a long shrill cry and the gorgon sister knew her time had come. They asked her, ‘What is your last wish, our tormented sister?’ 

‘Allow me to be born in your house, my loving blind sisters,’ wailed Medusa, ‘and I wish you go on attempting to give life to my lifeless hair. Only when that is done shall I be able to really die in peace.’

This must have happened hundreds of years back. And the souls of the Gorgon sisters from the end of the world as well as Medusa from ancient Greece went from country to country and from house to house in search of the right household where they could all be born together.

And they found the right house only a few years back in Goregaon. By some quirk of fate, the Gorgon sisters were born a few hours before medusa could emerge from the womb. While waiting for the third child to be born, their father called his twins ‘the Goregaon sisters’. This can strike as funny to you but the truth is that, unknown to us, mythology tends to transcend and connect time and distance in ways known only to its mind. The Gods (and this includes Athena) saw this and laughed.

Athena whispered, ‘I hope Medusa’s attitude has mellowed. I could then help her get her hair issue straightened.’

Her voice was heard and understood by the Goregaon sisters and they pleaded to her to be sympathetic to Medusa. Their present-day father was rather disturbed to hear his new born twins wail so inconsolably and asked the doctor, ‘What’s wrong with my daughters?’ The doctor checked and discovered that the twins were blind.

‘They’re probably wailing because they are born blind,’ said the good doctor.

‘Please do something,’ pleaded the father.

The doctor then asked him to pray and wait for a miracle. The father knew this was a difficult task as there are millions of Gods and Goddesses in India and to choose the right one would take him ages. So he just asked a patient who was lying in a bed next to where his wife was before she was taken to the delivery room. He asked, ‘Which is the best Goddess?’

This patient was a student of Greek mythology and just said, ‘Athena. She is the goddess of wisdom.’

‘OK,’ said the father, and closing his eyes prayed to Athena, a name he had heard for the first time in his life.

This addition of another fan in her fold… and that too from far away India, simply impressed Athena high above in heaven, and she managed to whisper to him, ‘I will help you set your three daughters right.’

The father opened his eyes and muttered, ‘Three daughters?’

Just then the nurse came bounding in and said, ‘Congrats, you lucky man from Goregaon. Your third child is also a daughter.’

‘Wow!’ he said, and immediately started searching a name for the third daughter. At that moment the doctor came in with a specialist who re-examined the Goregaon sisters and said, ‘They can see very well, doctor. You must have concluded wrongly.’

The doctors then turned to this man from Goregaon and told him that his twin daughters were born with a sight. The father just murmured, ‘Thank you, Athena!’

The Goregaon sister too looked at each other and smiled. They knew they had been relieved of their curse too and probably had this man to thank. So they looked towards him and coo-ed. Their father was a happy man.

The third sister was named Medulla. This name was also strangely suggested by the patient who was a student of Greek mythology. For those who do not know, the medulla isn’t just a part of our brain… it is also the name for the inside part of a shaft of hair. Now I must say that mythology does have strange ways of connecting time and distances… doesn’t it?

The three sisters started growing and in a few years were in a position to reach out for cosmetics on the dressing table at home… and even started mixing different kinds of oils to create strange concoctions. Their mother used to watch the twins do all sorts of mixing and then lovingly apply to the younger sister’s scalp. One day she told them not to do this as this was probably why Medulla’s hair was always so scruffy and tangled and rough and such an unsightly affair. The twins protested, ‘No, we’re just trying to help our sister.’

The mother didn’t know what was going on but asked the father for help. The father simply said, ‘Pray to Athena and you’ll get the answer.’

So the mother prayed to Athena… and up there in heaven, Athena was proud to get yet another fan from India. She said, ‘I wish the gods were on Facebook and twitter too. I’d have got these two vital likes and follows. This is a fascinating country.’

So she entered the mind of that mother and asked, ‘What do you want?’

‘I want Medulla’s hair problem sorted out, please.’

Athena said:

‘India is a sunny country and has a lot of silk
Bring these two together and rub that milk!’

The mother was confused but remembered the lines. She repeated them aloud and wondered aloud, ‘What could this mean?’

No one knew the answer to this puzzle… and one day she just happened to be at a store to buy cosmetics for the household when she repeated the lines. The store salesman was smart. He asked, ‘You want something where sun and silk come together?’

She said, ‘Yes, I have been searching for this for months now.’

‘Well, we have it stocked for you. It is the latest wonder solution for tangled and rough hair. Sun and silk are together in this,’ said the salesman and showed her a bottle where sun and silk were written together.

The mother was pleased. She thought, ‘These Gods are also quite knowledgeable now. They know all about product innovations today.’ What she didn’t know was that Athena was behind the innovation of this product. After all, the Gods know how to plan their solutions well in advance… or they wouldn’t be Gods at all!

So this product where sun and silk were written together, was brought home… and the Goregaon sisters applied it on their sister’s head with all the love they could manage. And then in just a few days Medulla noticed that her hair was as beautiful and as charged as it was hundreds of years back when she existed as Medusa!

So finally, the horrible hair Medusa was transformed to Medulla with lovely hair that was charged… well, it will only be correct to say that her hair was re-charged in her present birth and she found her beautiful days given back to her! So the truth is that recharged hair is what releases tormented souls too… and why just going across deserts or mountains or any earthly terrain, with recharged hair one can travel through time and through the universe  to meet history as well as mythology!

From Medusa to Medulla… with recharged hair!

Well, the secret of Athena is indeed in the sun and silk coming together.
Click on ‘Medusa to Medulla’ to know more.
This post is a part of a contest ‘Recharge your hair, Recharge your life’
on Indiblogger.

Arvind Passey
12 January 2014