I was prepared. I was full of confidence. I knew my lines and I had rehearsed them umpteen times in the past few hours. So as I opened my eyes after a night when even in my dreams I was up there on the NSD stage, I murmured, ‘What a glorious morning!’ That day I was to go for an audition for a role in a big theatrical production and the possibility was that a there would be producers and directors from Bollywood seeing the play.

I got up, and the first thing I did was to speak my lines aloud:

Is this the world that we now want?
Are these the roads that we will get?
Will bribe and dirt now fill our days?
No, we shall not now make them taunt
We now are one and laws we’ll set
For our Decembers and our Mays! 

These were radical lines reeking of not just protest and questions but a will to seek answers and get things done.

‘The new generation wants to do than just speak,’ I said with pride as I changed and went out to catch the bus to Mandi House.

When my turn came, I went up and spoke my lines… got applauded, but was not selected.

Why?

I mean I know I was dynamic, the words that I spoke were so contemporarily revolutionary, and even my tonal variations were charged with emotive appeal… so why was I not selected for the role?

‘Because,’ said the judges, ‘reason, governance, and unkempt stubbles don’t go together. You should have shaved today.’ I remembered then that the role brief did specify a fiery personality with a ‘swachch bharat’ mind-set… and life does begin from the face that the world looks at, doesn’t it?

.

.

.

I should have remembered then that the role brief did specify a fiery personality with a ‘swachch bharat’ mind-set…

I should have remembered then that the role brief did specify a fiery personality with a ‘swachch bharat’ mind-set…

‘This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette‘.

.

Requesting the following bloggers to also write on the #WillYouShave activity:
1. Sangita Passey. Blog: IDEAMASALA
2. Umang Bhatia. Blog: UmangBlogs
3. Anmol Rawat. Blog: AnmolRawat
4. Ganga Bharani. Blog: ScribbledByGB

In the post that you write, you will need to mention that you were referred by me.
Suggested topics for males:
Missed chances: Stories or instances where you missed out on an opportunity because of a non-shaven face.
Luck or Confidence?: Will you leave your fate in the hands of destiny or will you step up and say yes to a well-groomed face to be at your best everyday?

#WillYouShave

Suggested topics for females:
An instance when a stubble came in the way of a man’s chance to make a good impression.
An instance when a well groomed look ensured that they struck gold on an opportunity given to them.

.

‘This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette‘.

.

Arvind Passey
27 November 2014