Respected Sir/Madam,

Looks like 'thai' masam has brought some cheer all around. Less COVID, more vaccines. Stock market is up and vegetable prices are down. India has also won a cricket series in Australia and people are celebrating as if India has won some World Cup. I don't know much about cricket, but this cricket win has cheered up my cricket-crazy son Jan also. It has also created some confusion in his mind.

Here is an extract of the video call we had two days back. Only Jan, Mangalam and me.

JB: Kanna, looks like you have not been shaving regularly..Work- from-Home laziness?

Jan: No, no…I am growing a beard now appa.

JB : So like our Indian cricket team where everyone has a beard , you are also growing one ?

Jan : Yes, you can say so..

JB: But the way it is growing, it seems more like Modi's. Just that it is all black.

Mangalam who was silent till now, entered the conversation.

MB : Why can't you be clean shaven like Rahul Dravid or our own Chennai boy Ashwin. They look so smart and sophisticated.

Jan : Amma, they look too nice like 'mamma's boys' !

JB : As if you are not! Anyway, don’t be clean shaven..What is a man without some facial hair?

MB : Do you remember JB when we got married ? How much fuss you created over your moustache.

Jan: Amma what happened? Tell me

JB: Nothing much I used to have a thick and dense moustache,that was the fashion then. You would remember Kamal Haasan in Thevar Magan, though it came much later. Like that one.. Your mother insisted I should be clean-shaven. I put my foot down and then we both agreed for a pencil moustache like Sivaji Ganesan's. That has been my style ever since.

MB: Look here, in your photo in this showcase, you are clean shaven...So smart!

Jan : That is the same photo I have it on my passport. What a terrible look! Even, I can’t recognize myself.

JB : No one is handsome as his mother thinks he looks and no one is as ugly as they appear on their passport photo ! Ha ha

MB: So what do you plan to do?

Jan : I am a bit confused. My initial thought was to go for a clean trimmed beard like Kohli’s.

JB: What is the confusion then?

Jan: I think it is too much of an effort to maintain a beard like Kohli's.

MB: Then?

Jan : I am tempted to go for the Rahane beard..Short one but not prim and proper like Kohli's. Much less effort I think.

MB : Makes sense. Rahane seems more decent.

JB : These cricket fans ! One series and their heroes change. Do whatever. After all it is your own harvest and one does not have to wait for a Pongal to cut it.

Yours in consultation,

J.Bhoothalingam