The Facial Hair Complex

Adolescence brings a lot of complexity into a person's life. Mood swings, disposable personality changes, constant desire to do something I like to call “itish-pitish” in Bangla, these are but a few to speak of. For boys turning into men, there's an added bonus, facial hair. Let's be honest, every young man wants a beard or a moustache. Not that he wants to keep them, but just to know he can grow some is a relief. For the “lucky” ones, such as yours truly, it didn't take much. One morning I woke up with a stray hair on my face, tried to pull it off and it hurt. Something actually grew OUT of my face?!? I was going to show the world this, and I was sure they were going to applaud me. But that morning, I saw the look on my mother's face, who saw the end of her son's childhood. That look gave me the impression that this might be a disease.

Thus began one of the most eventful, and yet stressful, part of my life. I was one of the first kids in my class with a moustache and, let's face it, that post puberty moustache looks pretty stupid. I was made fun of but my “I'll eat you alive” attitude stopped all that before I got the “Chacha” nickname. Months passed into years and one day I stood in front of a mirror caressing that even covering of grass, I mean hair, on my face. Let's face it once more, that face full of beard looks pretty cool. My father had told me not to shave yet, because it grows back fast. Well, father, I didn't shave. On my 13th birthday, I wished for a superpower; I think it came true.
It surprised me how a couple of years change teenagers. The awkward boy with the out-of-place moustache now became the cool guy with the awesome stubble. I have friends with faces as barren as Indian batting pitches and they tell me their sad stories about how they run “special quick-growth” razors over their cheeks and still no beard! I just run my fingers over the grassy meadow on my face and tell them how it's this superpower I have.

Beards are a celebration of manhood. But, apparently, this isn't for teenagers to celebrate. Around my school, in front of my friends, my beard is a crown I wear, proud as a peacock. But I have learnt to expect murmurs of criticism in the presence of judgmental seniors. “Bhabi! Look at his face, he's at least 2 years older than the other boys!” “Bhabi! I hear he hangs out with older boys, the bad ones!” “BHABI! I hear he hangs out with the bad boys, he's taken up smoking and drugs and everything!”
Truth is, facial hair is cool if you can grow some. The gossipy aunties in our lives and their “bhabis” are stuck with the perception that beards are something you only see on older people. Anyone else who dares to don a stubble or a goatee is, without a shred of a doubt, an anomaly.

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A message from all us bearded buckos:

Dear aunties, just because I have a beard doesn't mean I'm older than I should be or that I do drugs. I'm not wasting my life. I'm still a normal kid. If your teenage son doesn't have facial hair, he probably suffers from hormone deficiency. Worry for him. I'm okay.