Whenever the vast tracts of ‘dense vegetation’ on my arms glare at me, irritation seeps in. my eyes literally trim through them to leave behind smooth plain ‘land’, on which my mind’s senses feast. As also, when the eye brows manifest themselves as something more than neat curves of suave hair, my hands, as if on an automated machine, inevitably catch hold on to a pair of scissors, swift to feed on to the thought of nipping the dangling hair at their buds! But, till now, I have not possibly come to put up with the ‘extortionate’ - to put as it feels - pain of shaving off the girly ‘moustache’ and ‘beard’ (euphemistically called ‘upper lip’ and ‘lower lip’), for the imagined sense of beauty which their shaving off gives!

As a child, I remember once asking my sister what a hair remover was and why should the hair be removed, the hair on the scalp being the only picture on my mind, as I juggled through the possible answers. Only years later did I have the privilege to enlighten myself with the fact that hair on the arms an legs too are shaved off!

As I entered the Law School, the sense of this ‘beautification’ by ploughing off engrosses me, as it does to any average teenage girl. As I truly experience it now, it feels really good to see the ‘ploughing off’ of the unwanted weedy crass, to have a soft, smooth and supple skin to shelter in! It gives immense sadistic satisfaction to feel the blissful pain and enjoy the philosophy behind the modus operandi!

The under-grad years have introduced me to the glamorous world of the beauty parlor. Whenever I visit the parlor near my home, I feel the conscious feeling of taking care of myself. There is always this ‘queue’ at the place. So, I get to spend a lot of time watching the ploughing off of others’ ‘fields’ by the beauticians. Ah! The beauticians! They seem to me like dolls, carved out of freshly melted wax, straight out of a factory! As I see them working on the women, here shaping the eye brows, there ploughing off, how I imagine myself at a law firm, with a crisply cut suit on, with straightened hair, glossy eyes and rosy lips! As I wait for my turn for getting ploughed, I imagine what life could possibly be, at a ‘National Law School’, all of which are notorious for their beautiful ‘chicks’ (as my male friends like to address them!)

By the time my flying mind does all the strolls, flies and walks in the campuses of these glitzy institutions and the law firms, I am struck by my eyes before me, staring at me, piercing through the mirror. Only a bit of grooming required, I hear myself say, closing my eyes, I see into the future me.

As the next day throws itself upon me, I find my male friends smiling admiringly at me, and how the feel-good confidence and happiness comes back to me, only to let me chase my law firm dream, more admiringly, more passionately!

An evening at the beauty parlor, strange as it seems, transcends time and space, and helps me contemplate, introspect and set the right foot forward, at every step I take to realise my goal!

Hail the Parlor! Hail the Mirror!