French Debate

It was quite a nice weekend.
 
Had a long debate with my mother over the virtues & cons of my newly sported French beard. It went on expected lines, just like any other household. The mother asking/pleading/threatening the son to remove the fungus off his face. Well, mine doesn’t exactly resemble a fungus. Apparently, I look my age with it. But do I want to?!
 
Before I answer that, lets just rewind a few months into the past. My mother had been very sincere & earnest in her requests directed at me – to SPORT A BEARD!! Surprising I know. But I had been postponing my decision as long as possible. Seriously, I wasn’t in any mood to voluntarily donate self-ridiculing content.
 
The summer internship seemed like the perfect opportunity to satisfy my mother’s fancy – limited crowd, lesser known faces. Perfect to a T.
 
Back to the present. She’s changed her mind about the whole damn thing. Only thing is that I’ve now begun to like my beard. Well, actually not the beard..but the powers it has vested in me. It provides me another hook to pull my mom’s leg. (And I don’t need to tell you how much I enjoy that!)
 
My mom decided to unleash the Brahma-astra of reasons – or that’s what she thought. Brahmins are not supposed to sport beards – the Vedas & Upanishads & Manu Smriti make this very clear. Hmm.
 
As far as I know, a Brahmin is also supposed to –
perform Sandhyavandhaman everyday.
have a tuft at the back of his head.
not eat onion, garlic, etc.
have a deep & intense desire to study.

And I do none of these. Wonder what makes my mom think that I would listen to the scriptures now. Optimism. Misguided optimism.

Or maybe I will listen to her. I am not all that bad a guy. :)