Life is not a level playing field for P
P had never considered life to be a level playing field. Some people had all the brawn and the good looks and some people had all the brains. And then there were the groups with loads of both while there were some with little of either. Any amount of deep thinking could never clear P’s doubts as to why the Creator indulged in such biased and uneven creations.
Only the previous month, P had discovered a few grey hairs on his crown and had rushed and got his hair dyed black. He had been feeling happy with his looks soon afterwards but his calm was shattered a couple of days later. He was bewildered when he looked at himself in the mirror and discovered that the uneven skin tone on his face had worsened. His forehead, nose, cheeks and chin were now blotched with dark brown pigmentation. “Life is indeed full of ups and downs but I am not going to be defeated by it,” P decided. So he set out to try all sorts of remedies to improve his complexion from witch hazel toner and kumkumadi oil to more prosaic things such as turmeric powder, sandalwood paste, lime juice, honey, milk etc. The skin tone did not improve with anything though and blotches of dark patches lay unevenly on his face. P then had to seek the expert opinion of a dermatologist.
“I think your skin is reacting to something. It must be some allergy”, concluded the doctor.
P then had one of his ‘Eureka’ moments! “You know what! It could be the hair dye! It all started after I used the hair dye”, he exclaimed.
“Then leave it be, P, stop using the dye,” the doctor recommended and P gladly obliged.
Without colouring his hair further, P’s complexion improved!
But ….
Life was never a level playing field
Though P struggled not to yield
Age caught up with him and his hair
Even though he took utmost care
He dyed black to hide the greys
And was quite happy for a couple of days
Till black blotches tainted his skin uneven
He tried all remedies that were proven
The doc then suggested and he complied
The dye to his hair he no more applied
The blotches vanished, his complexion improved
His allergy to henna and the colouring thus proved
But life is just so full of ups and downs!
It still left P with worrying frowns
Because……
While the blacks disappeared from his face, the whites got his hair!