Learnt pretty early in life to avoid scissors and razor near children’s hair. Particularly if held in my hand.

Eg-Namaste London. We were in London. VIPul on a day off decided I was to give him a trim cause Salina in London are very expensive (everything is) and cutting non existent 20 had a half hair wasn’t worth the money. So he sat in the tub his back to me, me perched on the edge of the tub behind him armed with a electric buzzer and infrong of us on the other edge of the tub sat our two little boys waiting to see the show of their life time…. it was so cute, happy faces, happy family, all surrounding head (pun intended) of family sitting on the edge of a tub in a warm and cozy huddle oblivious to the cold outside, making for the cutest family picture ever. Until I switched on the buzzer(on the lowest ) and run it from the nape of the victims neck to the mid of his head. dunno why but the buzzer had decided to shave off a fat strip of hair off his head. I froze staring at the reverse Mohawk not really knowing how to salvage it. It was pretty uneventful from them on. Kids saw my expression, vipul saw their expression and realised the only option was to forego whatever was left on his head.

I shaved him bald and he didn’t have to waste a penny on haircut shampoo or conditioner. All was good in the shah world.

Kids haircuts were a different story that ideally should have been with me minus arms. Mine or electric. Snipping a ear was of Ofcourse my concern but the hair, oh the hair. Soft Curly locks…..

They weren’t too happy sitting in a barbers /stylist chair. So both boys ka mundan was done by us at home. First I did not want to cut their hair let alone shave it. But wasn’t interested in ritualistic discussions with inlaws. Too boring. Anyway. It was almost a 4 hour long process for each. Not done together but a year apart.

It was our own little ceremony. Little Aryaman (then in a year a repeat with little Maurya) I Played music gave them crayons , and let them colour walls while vipul shaved Aryamans hair. Bit by bit, section by section. Carefully. Showering the lill one in between to wash the hair irritating his neck and bare torso. Powdering and continuing again. Not a nick,not a scratch,not a cry. Proud father for achieving a difficult feat. Sad mommy cleaning those soft swirls of cappuccino hair. A happy beaming baby not recognising himself. And white walls coloured with a vibgyor of crazy lines and wild imagination.

The same was a copy cut repeat with Maurya after a year.

As they grew older haircuts took different turns, salons, styles I could experiment with (which I knew wouldn’t be my privilege for much longer) and normally I don’t care attitude of the kids. Sometimes they did, wanted the lightning Sign or spikes or buzz cuts on the sides and mop on top.

As expected and pretty soon I wasn’t the one to take them for cuts and each time they went i braced myself for who walked in the door that day. David, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Messi or Malinga. And once 2 humans with flat straight curtain of hair on their face walked into the house. But nothing shocked me anymore.

Until (20 days so. Was reeling under shock to share this now) my pups were send for a trim by Aryaman. Sent not taken. First step towards disaster. All haircuts should be under Parental guidance. Anyway I came home from work waiting for the pups to come from the spa. All soft and fluffy and pristine white paws spelling like fresh warmth and pure love. They potter pattered in and we all froze. This time it was froze at minus 3800 degree. They had gone as wolves and come back as ratatouilles. It was a disaster of epic proportions. This wasn’t a trim it was exactly what the salon didn’t understand. Poor babies looked like a hybrid of an emu, rat, with a bush of a tail and a mask of a husky.

And it affected them more than it had affected vipul. Their Maine their pride shaved to an inch and a half.

But my babies are swelling up again, hair by hair… like all members of the shah family survives all hair and tgere experiments.