Going around in circles?

I have been known in my circle as ‘the girl with THE long hair’. In fact, I go so far as to state that people identify me with my two-plus-feet long hair; from relatives to friends, Chitra --> long hair – as simple as that.

So, when I bumped into one of my college-mate’s Mom, it was no wonder that the first thing she enquired was about my hair :) ! “Oh my, it’s become soooo thin. Are you not taking good care of it? BTW, what do you apply? Do you use Shampoo or Shikakai?” enthused the lady-with-the-never-ending-list-of-questions.

Any other time, I would have been glad (and patient enough) to field her questions. But, I was experiencing the effects of a typical bad-day-at-work. I was tired, hungry and irritated. The thing which I would have preferred most was an hour of blissful sleep (one of the few times I preferred sleep over food) or a long walk, and not this idle talk.

But the situation became unbearable when she ran her hand along the length of my plait, right from my nape till the end. At this point, my tolerance went for a full-fledged sixer! I had never felt this uncomfortable till this point. “Now or never”, and thus making some insipid excuse, I escaped.

On my way back home, I could not help wondering about a conversation which I had with AA ages back, regarding the theory of concentric circles. According to this theory, consider yourself standing at the center of a number of concentric circles. The nearest circle surrounding you consists of people closest to you – such as family, close friends, husband etc. The intimacy factor of the relationship decreases with the increase in the distance from the center i.e you. But the bottom line is, you grant certain rights to these people. And you alone can revoke them.

So, keeping this in mind, the only person whom I allowed to comb my hair was my Mom....... and she stopped doing that more than ten years ago!