End of a dream and throwing out some stuff

Disclaimer : This post is just a guy whining about his not so great hair and a lot of references to sweating and giving himself names like MCM and MSM.

I guess this is something that every newcomer to running, like me, goes through. After a while of serious running, you realise that you *can* run your entire life. Every chance that you get, you know you can put your shoes on, plug your music in and get going. Or to put it another way, you realise that you are never going to stop - or at least that is what you plan for. That’s a big commitment to make. No one is going to say, “Alright, now that I have been running for a while and doing well, let me think of when to stop running”. So every newly-started runner faces the realisation that they are going to be running for a long time or at least they are hoping to be running for a long time. May be this realisation is not a big deal for some. For me it was definitely not a big deal - I was all like “Alright, trying to run everyday, that is going to be great”. Of course, Darshan is the usual distractor, asking me every once in awhile with a ear-to-ear grin: “So mams, I wonder what happens when you stop running …..” and my usual answer was “Ah ha but I will never stop, you see”. This was the status quo - until I noticed that all the running and all the ensuing sweating was not doing any good to my hair. Now some of you may be enlightened enough to know about my long hair experiments. They always end in a haircut that I should have had 6 months ago. For those of you that don’t know:  every time I get a haircut, I tell myself that “This is not the end and one day I shall try leaving my hair really long and succeed”.

So here I was: Since I decided that I will never quit running and also it was very evident that hair longer than 2-3 cm and running are not really the best of friends, I had a decision to make. And whenever I have a decision like this to be made, I have to think it through. Over and over. Thoroughly. In situations like this, I like to imagine that I am being interviewed by a much cooler version of myself - a guy who could be a talk show host on prime time television. He’s a sharper, wittier and may be a slightly taller version of myself... ;-)

Let’s call this guy MCM, short for “much cooler milind”. So we have MCM interviewing MSM now. MSM is obviously the present me: Milind Srikanta Murthy.

MCM: So milind, how does it feel, knowing that you will never be able to live that long hair dream of yours.
MSM: ( thinking a little, pauses to gather his thoughts... ) umm, yeah, I guess. I know that. I am trying not to think about it, that’s all.
MCM: But not all is lost, you know. If some mishap were to happen and if you are not able to run for a long time, you can try growing your hair back again. Just saying.
MSM: That is not very comforting, not at all.
MCM: Even if they have perfected permanent hair straightening technology by then ?
MSM: ( Takes a moment to imagine “perfectly straight” hair ) Uh, yeah, no I guess. I guess I’d take “being able to run” over straighter hair any day.
MCM: Are you sure? Or are you just saying that because you know all the previous long hair experiments were, well, to put it mildly, failures.
MSM: Yes, I am sure.
MCM: What if the next long hair experiment goes okay? Not like the previous ones that ended with your hair getting nicknames of its own? (laughs)... *that* was funny, by the way.
MSM: Nope, not changing my mind.
MCM: Think about it, maybe it’s a case of sour grapes? I am talking about *perfect* hair here.
MSM: Yes, I have made up my mind. What’s this, I am Faust and you are the devil ?
MCM: Haha, don’t give yourself unnecessary credit, imagining yourself to be Faust and all. But I could be the devil, couldn’t I? (Chuckles). So, coming back to the question, you say you’re done experimenting with your hair ?
MSM: (Firmly) Yes.
MCM: What about all the, you know, vanity products? The conditioners and the gels ?
MSM: Threw them out already.
MCM: Really? Are you sure you would not need them at all ?
MSM: Yes, the half empty bottles, they are all gone.
MCM: What about the ridiculous brush ? That’s gone too ?
MSM: Umm ….
MCM: Ah ha. I knew this. You are not sure, that’s why you kept the brush.
MSM: It’s not exactly like that, but I didn’t want to throw the brush away, yet.
MCM: And that would be because …..  ?
MSM: I don’t know, okay ? May be I will keep it for memories. Maybe it’ll go into my souvenirs box.
MCM: But you don’t even have a souvenirs box!
MSM: Yet. But I am gonna have one, starting with this, okay ?
MCM: Souvenirs box it is then, okay. As always, it’s kinda been lame talking to you. Maybe you can put this in your blog. If that’s your thing.
MSM: Umm, not a bad idea, actually.


So there it is. The hair experiments are over and the garnier bottles are gone. The interview idea was something that played out in my mind during my run this morning. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, so If you again catch me with longer hair - you know what to ask me: “Hey what happened, did you stop the running?”. Thanks for reading and putting up with all the hair-experiments. ;-)