Of Mustaches And Beards

Majority of the men today seem to be up in arms when they confront a person with imposing mustache and impressive beard. Now the trend is, every man wants to have a clear upper lip. If you ask him why it is so, he may not find a ready made answer. Even if he finds, he may be a little reluctant to answer. Man has a feeling (may be a wrong notion) that women prefer a male to have a clean upper upper lip without any hair so that it will not hinder the romantic mood during bedtime.

 But actually it is the other way round. Any woman would agree that imposing mustache would add heroic look to her man. Yet he is a victim of media brain washing. There is an international conspiracy against sub nasal carpeting with mustache. To boost up their market sales of blades and razors, the multi-national companies show on the small screen of the idiot box ` young men with clean shaven faces. To add to this, beautiful female models are shown running their well manicured and smooth fingers over the young man's face. The MNCs do this with the connivance of the government. And the gullible young man is hypnotized into believing that beautiful women like the

models in the media, like men with marble face without a trace of hair. And the young brides are brainwashed into believing that men look handsome only when their sub nasal area is as smooth as a Belgium glass. Most of the American presidents have a tacit approval of this conspiracy; that is why they do not have mustaches and beard. But men around the globe are gradually realizing that they look better with a rich crop of hair on their sub nasal part. In many countries, including the United States a movement has started in this direction where young men are asked to take pride in their mustache and beard. No young man need feel that Venus would not cast her romantic look on his visage if he has a hairy upper lip or a good beard on his chin. In fact a woman is hit by Cupid's arrows, at a man's well trimmed mustache or beard or both.

  In India the Hindi movie heroes like Anil Kapoor and the South Indian stars like Nagarjuna and Balakrishna and many others  sport impressive mustache on the silver screen. The famous TV and movie star of yesteryears Kabir Bedi was more remembered for his impressive beard.

Even today there are mustached men who compete in balancing lemons on the ends of their mustaches. Kanumuri Bapiraju, a well known political figure of Andhra Pradesh is liked by many for his huge crop of mustache.

 Only one has to delve deep into Indian mythology and one finds numerous references to mustaches and beards. When Rukmi tried to take back his sister by force, Lord Krishna, her newly wed consort, took out his dagger and denuded his foe's upper lip. The denudation of one's mustache was considered worse than showing one's back in the battle field. In Mahabharata, when the prince Saidhava covets Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas, Bheema shaves off his (Saindhava's) mustache along with his hair. Saindhava, unable to bear this insult, ontemplates suicide. In the medieval period even riddles were given about mustache. Once a king posed the challenging riddle "The queen's nose-stud hid in the bushy mustache of the king" to his court poets. A poet solved the riddle in a beautiful poem which says that the queen's nose-stud found its way into the king's mustache during their romantic moment.
 Though Sri Krishna Devaraya, emperor of Vijayanagar was known for his military exploits, statesmanship and poetic gifts, he was also remembered for his winsome handle bar mustache.

 The heroes of Ramayana and Mahabharatha must have had imposing mustache since they were formidable warriors. But unfortunately, the artist Raja Ravi Varma painted their images without mustache and the later artists have been condemned to follow suit. That is why these two God heads appear in plays and movies without a trace of hair follicle on their upper lip.

 Today it is disturbing to note that majority of young men grow half an inch hair on their face in place of mustache and beard. But I hope that it is a passing phase.

Considering the glory of mustache, young men are advised to select the best type of mustache according to the shape of their upper lip. Only they have to twirl at their mustache and the girls of their choice would fall after being shot at by the arrows of the god of love.