A daughter’s lockdown curls

A woman commemorates her mother’s memory with a new hairstyle

hair!“

In the BC (Before Corona) era, when people were still obliged to be physically present in the office, Ms Pande rarely found time in her hectic schedule to immerse herself deeply in everyday grooming. “Having a shower was a rushed affair,” for instance. But as she found herself stranded at home with the imposition of lockdown in late March, she slowed her life. She also started to spend more time in the shower “and developed routines like oiling my body, bathing more leisurely.” It gave her the opportunity to recall memories of her mother loudly singing Gayatri Mantra while in the shower “and the prayers wouldn’t even stop as Maa would emerge out, all dressed up, from the bathroom, and amble towards the pooja (prayer) corner in our home.”

One day, more than a month ago, Ms Pande came out of her bath and discovered ringlets in her hair. “The hair looked undone... they had curled up on their own... I was sort of liking it.”

Ms Pande soon realised that “if I don’t dry and comb my hair after the wash, they start curling up naturally.” She also Googled to discover other tricks—like scrunching—to make her hair go curly in a natural way. Ms Pande’s mother passed away in 2011, aged 67. “Something had snapped in her after my brother, a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force, died in a MIG-21 fighter crash.”

One wonders how Ms Pande’s friends react on seeing her curly avatar on Zoom meets. The lady laughs, saying, “I think they are finding it a bit exotic! Very different from my Bihari lineage of straight no-fuss hair... this is more me—bohemian and carefree.”

And what if her mother were alive?

“Maa would have immediately said, “Go, comb your hair!””