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As I walk the bustling streets of Gold Coast, I realise that I stand out in the crowd of Australians and the Japanese.Now that might sound incredible, considering we are talking of a short, stocky, bespectacled Indian with zero personality walking down a street where the average guy is a six-footer with six-pack abs. But, I have something that almost the entire population of Gold Coast doesn't--a moustache!
I don't really know why western civilisation has largely abandoned the moustache in the new millennium despite the fact that some of history's most famous people--from Shakespeare to Hitler--they all preferred hair growth above their upper lip.
I have no plans of making history but I certainly feel like a rare species in a rather clean --shaven world. I am told women don't fancy moustache anymore, which probably explains why I had to try so hard to get a girlfriend in college. My wife says she was not wearing her glasses when she fell in love with me at first sight. And then she took pity on me!
As for me, I am trying to keep alive a tradition that started in 300 BC. I mention the era because the oldest portrait showing a shaven man with a moustache is said to be a Scythian horse-man from 300 BC.
This means we are talking of a period when nobody anticipated a moustache would spawn an industry of moustache wax, moustache nets, moustache brush, moustache comb, moustache scissors and moustache cup -- which is actually a drinking cup with a partial cover to protect the upper lip from froth in the drink. That apart, the World Beard & Moustache Competition has now divided the moustache into six subcategories that range from toothbrush to handlebar!
Come to think of it, my favourite movie character, Indiana Jones, would have sported a thick bushy moustache had Steven Spielberg been able to unshackle Tom Selleck, his original choice instead of Harrison Ford, from a stringent studio contract that bound him to the hugely popular 80s private eye TV show 'Magnum'. That would have been cool!
My friends often suggest that I shave off my moustache when I go abroad and 'blend' in with the local crowd. I find that strange advice, considering no matter how hard I try blending in with the firangs and be one of them, I will always remain - in my walk, talk and behaviour - an Indian.
