STORYTIME TAPESTRY

Deepak Morris??冱 Weekly Column

East Meets West

July 28, 2005

To continue with my vision of a world tapestry of love and understanding of cultural values throughout the world, every Thursday we will be graced by the artistic vision of Mr. Deepak Morris, a wonderful playwright and friend from Prune, India.

His plays have been preformed in front of audiences in Toronto, Canada

When Hairy Met Trimmy

I wanted a beard and moustache trimmer. So I asked my
friend, who's a whiz at all things electronic, to pick
one up for me.

Well, he did.

I fell in love with the sleek lil piece with the
curves in the right places and called her Trimmy. Then
I noticed the comb and the trimmer guides and a lil
ole manual that said I could also use Trimmy to trim
my hair. What a bonus! I needn't visit the barber any
more. Yeah, I know they call 'em hairdressers now, but
barber it was that came home once a month to give me
the grandma-approved crew cut and barber he shall
remain to the end of my days. I hate visiting the
barber.

So I kept the piece to be charged, waiting eagerly for
3:00 p.m., Sunday, when I would be rid of the barber
forever.

3:00 p.m., Sunday.

Newspapers spread in the approved fashion to catch the
trimmings. Towel over my shoulders to keep the itchy
stuff out of my clothes.

I begin.

In the manual-approved style, I begin with the back of
my head, which I can't see, and shove Trimmy up my
tangled tresses.

It feels like Trimmy is trying to pull my hair up by
the roots. I disentangle Trimmy and bring her before
my de-spectacled eyes. Trimmy has indeed pulled my
hair up by the roots. Fully three of them. I shove
Trimmy in again. Into battle, my hearty!

Minutes pass. Staying with the manual-approved style,
I have neatly trimmed the front, back and sides.

Trimmy's battery dies.

I am left with a partial crew-cut on the back, sides
and front of my head and a clump of hair on the top.
So far I haven't looked in a mirror. Who needs a
mirror when I'm going to trim all my hair to a 6 mm
length?

I look in the bathroom mirror.

I look like one of those Brazilian aborigines they
show on National Geographic, except I'm less
dignified.

Mother raises an eyebrow, which is the equivalent of
us lesser mortals kicking our heels and doing the
fandango, in protest. You see I have been deputed, by
virtue of being the only somewhat-able-bodied human at
hand, to drop her and her luggage to the railway
station so she can visit one of her other progeny, my
sister down South. Only, she does not wish to be seen
in public with a Brazilian with a bad barber.

Creative genius I, I save the evening with a baseball
cap. I drop Mother and luggage to the station, to find
that the train has been delayed. Indefinitely.

Mother sits on someone else's luggage and carefully
eyes the ground to ensure that no rats get near her. I
stay with Mother's luggage, until the passing of
half-an-hour dictates that I sit down too. Mother's
luggage being the soft kind, I am constrained to sit
on someone else's hard luggage - very accommodating,
these railway guards, with their tin trunk luggage -
right next to Mother.

When I do gather the courage to look into Mother's
face, I see only a kind of odd wonderment at her
forty-year old progeny's insistence on behaving like
an adolescent.

An hour and a half later, Mother safely ensconced in
her seat on the train, I return home to my freshly
charged Trimmy.

I wonder if Mother will make good on her promise,
thirty years ago, to have me committed to a mental
institution, so that humanity may survive. Hair
intact.

Deepak Morris
"What would you do if you weren't afraid?"
http://www.freewebs.com/deepakmorris
Listen to my audio blogs at:
http://dm01.blogspot.com/

Deepak Morris

rhapword@yahoo.com

* * *

Founder of Rhapsody Theatre, author, playwright,
actor and director Deepak Morris has been
associated with Theatre and Communication all
his life. A Master of Commerce from Pune
University, Master's Diploma holder in
Management from The Institute of Management
Development and Research (IMDR), Pune, and
Diploma holder in Computer Studies from the
National Computing Centre, UK, Deepak
combines a passion for theatre with professional management techniques
to deliver consistently well staged theatrical
performances. An accomplished actor himself,
Deepak has won numerous awards for acting and
debating, including the "Best Actor" award at
the International Year of the Youth Drama
Festival in Pune and the "Best Male Newcomer
Award" in 1997 in Dubai, U.A.E. Having acted
in numerous productions in India and Dubai,
Deepak began writing and directing his own
plays on a regular basis in March 2001. To
date, he has written several one-act plays
and skits and his group, Rhapsody Theatre,
has staged no less than 13 plays in three
years, a record of sorts.