”Hitler ruined that mustache for everybody. It is an interesting moustache and now nobody can wear it ”. Well, he sure did, ever since that first ‘milk mustache”, that we got as toddlers, as we gulped down our glasses of milk, obediently, to the count of ten! It was an exciting sight to spy, a creamy, ivory coloured line, on top of our lips. We felt like little gentlemen! Mustaches did not seem, that much of a big deal, as one grew up in a Sikh household. There was always the surprise element. In the earliest days, a well pomaded and groomed mustache, was supposed to be twirled up into a fine curl, making the owner look rather stylishly menacing!
The full-bodied whisker like, mustache was endearing, as it generally belonged to one’s genial grandfather. The practice of putting up one’s hand, to roll the mustache, to show dare devilry and courage was common. If a lesser mortal tried to show one down, then the prestige of the mustache was at stake. The English have a proverb that says a man without a moustache is like a cup of tea without sugar. Amongst the thirteen major types of mustaches, mostly acquiring their name and fame after some luminary, are – the chevron, the Dali, the English, the fu Manchu, the handle bar, the horse shoe, look like what they take after. The imperial is fascinating. You must check out the image, it has a beard flying high along with it.
The lampshade and the painters brush, look common enough. The pencil, the tooth brush and the pyramid keep coming back in new avatars. The walrus, of course takes the cake. If one was to take a trip in the deserts of Rajasthan, one would never stop gaping in awestruck wonder, at the royal look of the ‘Rajputi Shaan O Shaukat ‘. It really is not strange, that facial hair, are synonymous with masculinity and bravado.
Hirsute men, are back in fashion, so to say splashed across billboards as models and movie stars.” jethh mere diyaan aidiyaan muchhaan, do do guttaan karda”. I would swear by a real man any time, hairy or not! When it comes to ”dhanno teri izzat ka sawaal hai’‘then a ”muchhmunda”, might do too. The naughty punjabi folk songs reverbrate ”laung teriyaan muchhaan vich gummeya, main saari raat toldi rahi” – oh well whatever. I do know, that a lot of the lush, shiny mustaches of holy men, is a result of their wiping, their ghee-soaked hands, after eating a generous helping of ”karrah parshad”, on their beard and mustaches!
Lily Swarn’s tenth book “A Drop Of Cosmos” recently published by Authors Press is available on Amazon
