Sanju Nair

"Hachooooo.....". Oh no! Its the third time I sneezed in the last hour.. My ma comes dashing from the kitchen almost knocks me over due to the inertia and without even waiting to catch her breath, gives her diagnosis.. "Time for your haircut, San", she says.. According to her, failure to shorten your hair exactly once every month will give you this disease characterized by running nose, sneezing etc which will vanish once you visit the barber shop.. I try to argue saying that if that is the case, then guys with long hair like Hrithik would have been hosptilazied.. She asks me, "Then why did Dhoni and Ishant cut their hair?".. Stumped!!! Smart woman.. Hmmm... No use arguing with ma, she always wins.. Now, why did they cut their hair?? Is it really because they were catching cold..??.. Mothers do that to you.. They can convince you to believe anthing they want you to.. So, off I went to the barber shop.. You know, this monthly routine that I have been doing...

The other day, I was just chilling with my friends.. The exams had only just gotten over and we had just gotten together for another of our trips, having loads of fun and chit-chat, when it struck me.. S8! Man, I tell you I know I just finished another semester but S8, already?? It was almost scary, all this fun, all these great times, coming to an end?? I wondered aloud, "Guys, can you believe we are going to be in S8 in a couple of weeks?".. I hear Sunitha's matter-of-fact voice..."Yeah, we should grab the S8 books from library before others take them all!!".. This very unexpected reply stunned me into silence... Boy, I should stop hanging out with geeks!!! Ullas looks at me and goes "who told you it was S8, its only S6!!" and gives me his "what-an-idiot" look... Oh no!!! As always we are facing a bigger problem now.. Realization dawns not only on Ullas but on the rest of the gang.. We give each other a "I am gonna miss you" look....