The world is evil and it is not yet ready for a man like me. I have tried my best but I think it is not my time yet. I feel sad to be bidding adieu but I think I have to take leave of you all now. I would like to thank all of you who have helped me directly and indirectly in the past. If I have done anybody any wrong, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I have never tried to hurt anybody intentionally, I have never tried to be unfair to anybody. I tried my best. All I really wanted to do was to give my best shot at changing the world. Anyway that is another story. I leave all my worldly possessions to my twin brother who will handle all my matters from today onwards. Adieu, brothers and sisters, and uncles and aunts, and grand fathers and grand mothers, Adieu.
After 1 year of my experiments with my beard I have finally shaved it off. Of this one year, I had also grown my hair for the last six months and had stopped trimming and maintaining my beard during this same period. This was done as a protest to the kind of treatment we Freedom walkers received during certain segments of our walk across Kerala.
I have mixed results from my experiments.over the last one year. The initial six months was not bad as I was wearing a more or less formal trimmed beard. People did not mind my earlier formal beard and some even had commented that it had made me look more serious. The fun started after the freedom walk when I stopped tending to my beard and hair as a protest as mentioned above. Almost every one I know, especially my relatives, pleaded with me to stop doing whatever I was doing. I however had used all these opportunities to explain to them the reason why I was doing it. Again some accepted the reason while others continued to beseech me because they felt that the whole deal was gruesome. Probably it was, but again I really did not care. Also this effectively became the second phase of my experiment with my beard.
I had been to a few formal business related meetings during this last 6 months and the common initial expression I received was an expression of disbelief. Where people expected clean shaven formally dressed gentlemen, I would walk in with disheveled hair and beard. Those initial minutes were normally tough. Nobody would ask me why I was the way I was but would have kept thinking about why I was the way I was. However I have mostly been able to get through these meetings without disastrous effects because after my talk people would normally judge me by my merit and not by my looks. But I think it would have been easier if I were clean shaven. Breaking through prejudices is doable but it is tough.
My barber was quite pleased to see me after six months and he had a pretty easy job pruning the stuff. There was quite a lot of it and it took him slightly longer than normal time to finish the job. So after a long time I am back to my good ol' clean shaved looks. To be frank, being clean shaved is much more comfortable. Except maybe when I program. My beard used to help me think as I slowly brushed it with my hand. I guess I still could continue the same actions on my clean shaved chin when I think :-)
Edit: The photo was taken by a friend of mine who goes by the worldly name "Ashik Salahudeen". The photo was stiched by none other than "yours truly" using Gimp
You look happier with the beard! And is that the 'evil' twin brother? Or is he alright? :P
Did he say evil twin :-). He said 'evil world'. His twin, that is me, is as good as him. I might even venture to say better than him, given that he is no longer around. And I am as happy as him although I might not have looked as happy in the photo.
I thought the beard was a direct result of your admiration for Stallman. :P
You look handsome now. :D Don't start growing a beard once more. :D
Of course not, it was not an aping-stallman-show as you have already understood. The beard was only a way of educating people about the reason behind my protest.
I liked the version with the beard more. There was symmetry to it. The head hair and the beard hair, they were becoming like mirror images. Symmetry is what makes most things in nature "attractive".
Yes. I have to agree that there is beauty in symmetry. In web application development this rule makes a lot of difference between an average layout and a beautiful layout. I think it is heavily relevant in architecture too.
Great conversation. I totally enjoyed it. What is more important in life than having a few laughs:)
I have always thought everybody could use a sense of humor. Maybe take a crash course in sense of humor. The guys in the TV like talk show hosts, social activists, politicians and everybody could see life in more lighter sense.
Right now everybody is so serious in Kerala.
Of course I agree with you totally. Seeing the fun side of life is fun. But it is tough to do that with all these hectic schedules and life styles. People are rushing everywhere. Nobody really knows where to and only few reach anywhere significant.
Nicely Gimped!
Thanks :-)
You look really clean....
That was me behind the beard all the time :-)
1) Beard or no beard you rock!
2) I am from NIT Durgapur LUG. We want to install a freedom toaster here. I heard zyxware sells these. I checked out http://freedomtoaster.in and sent a mail using the web interface too. Kindly send me some details about the cost and the logisitics involved.
Thanks,
Debayan Banerjee
+91 9832195528
I got your mail. Somebody from Zyxware will get back to you regarding the Freedom Toaster.
Do you guys have a good Free Software users group there at NIT Durgapur?
yes we do have a vibrant LUG down here. Our mailing list is at http://groups.google.com/group/nitdgplug and website at http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in.
Dear Anoop,
We are so much delighted to see your original look!! we have protested, pleaded and prayed...and finally it worked because of the latter.
God bless you
BJss
Did you look at why I was doing what I was doing? Didn't it make sense? Then why did you have to protest :-). I was doing only what I should have been doing. I am done with it because I had decided to be done with it by March.
As an ardent nature conservationist, I abhor and protest against all kind of deforestation. Have you ever thought of the numerous creatures that might have found home in that small forest in these few months? Few months?? How do I say few months?!! For a lice or a bug or an insect or a worm, a few human months will be equivalent to several billions of insect years.
It is a pity that no one foresaw this massive destruction and took precautions against it. Even the nonchalant actions from the barber (hair stylist, since billu barber) testifies this. There are people to protest and do freedom march from one end of the world to the other end (no, I don't mean to talk about the end of the world, preachers please excuse), but not a single person to stand up for these tiny creatures and their tiny world. Horton hears a Who!
I assure you that there was no wild animals or wild creatures that had established dominion in the deep forest that it was. And we have taken special care to ensure that whatever existed, if at all there were any, was relocated via the wig manufacturing network to unsuspecting bald males of the species homo sapiens sapiens.
Those are usual comments from the homo politicos species which appear on all kind of media including their personal blogs, esp at election times. AND forgotten. What should be done is to make sure they are relocated with maximum comfort and to the best of their interests. Medha Patkar is listening, and Aamir Khan is blogging as well.
Trust me, I am different :-)
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