Now that she was bald, Nandini felt more elated, more courageous. After the day she got her husband to shave her head smooth, she walked around with a scarf. But the next day, she got bolder and walked around with bare, bald head. Some people made a wry face, but many smiled and a few talked to her and told she looked beautiful, even with a bald head. Nandini got bolder by the hour.

The next day she telephoned her parents and told them of her new appearance. Her mother Gayatri was horrified. ”What have you done! I was thinking of asking you to do it in Tirupati after you got your first child. I did not want to put you off in advance, not knowing that you actually liked it. If only you had told me! By the by, how and when did you get this desire of getting shaved clean?” Gayatri almost wailed.

”Amma (meaning mother), I had this desire since Rakesh’s headshave during his thread ceremony. I liked that process and the posture – sitting crosslegged in front of the barber and the latter wetting his head and shaving him with a straight razor. I asked Vikas to shave my head similarly which he did. He cut off the bulk of my hair with scissors. I told him that I would wear a sari and sit on the floor in front of him. He could then shave my wet hair. Which he did. I liked it very much, Amma”

By now Gayatri was more composed. ”You will feel much better in Tirupati, Nandu. There also you will have to sit cross legged on the floor. The barber will wet your hair thoroughly and shave your head clean with a razor fitted with a disposable shaving blade. He will do it so well in a jiffy, you will be on cloud nine, my dear. The tingling sensation of your long locks grazing your cheeks as they fall is something you should never miss. How unfortunate! You don’t have those long hairs now. My vow can’t be fulfilled.”

Nandini said ”Don’t worry, Amma. I will grow it back in just about three years. By then for sure I will have a kid in my hands. Probably the child’s hair as well as mine could be shaved on the same day in Tirupati. By the by, you are describing tingling sensation of long hair getting cut and all that. How do you know?”

”Simple. When I took you to Tirupati to get your head shaved for the first time, your father and I also got it done. You were the first child you see and I had vowed my hair to Lord Venkateshwara. I had knee long hair then. That tonsure was so nice and enjoyable. You don’t remember that since you were just two years old at that time. I wanted to get it done again both for you and myself when you passed your SSLC exams. But, your father said no for some reason. He said we could do it after you became a mother.”

”Well, Amma. I am really excited. In three years flat, your daughter will be with a baby and long hair. And to see you also becoming bald in Tirupati. Imagining it by itself is making me excited.”

Then Nandini, now bolder than before, telephoned her in-laws. Her mother-in-law, Mukta, was excited beyond words. ”Oh, is it? Ha ha ha. A beautiful and bald daugher-in-law. Ha ha ha. How much I would like to see you and touch your smooth head! But would in not have been better to have got it done in a religious place like Tirupati or Tryambak or Prayag? I am looking forward to the day when I am going to Prayag with your father-in-law and get my head nicely shaved. He is asking me to wait till you give us a grand-child. When will that be, dear?”

Encouraged Nandini said ”I am sorry, Amma (here it meant ‘mother-in-law’) that I jumped the gun and did it at home without telling you. I did not know that getting shaved in a religious place is so exciting. I have told Amma (here it meant ‘mother’) that in three years flat I will have long hair and a child.”

And true to her words, Nandini gave birth to a beautiful girl child just nine months after she was shaved by her husband. They named her Madhuri. When the kid was three months old, Nandini’s parents-in-law went to Prayag for pilgrimage. There, on the banks of Ganga, Mukta got her mid-back length hair cut to her nape by her husband and did Venidaan, a sacred poojan every married female ought to do at least once. Immediately after, she got her head shaved clean by a barber. Her husband and her 16 year old son, Madhav also got fully tonsured as is required by custom. Looking at the photos taken by Madhav of his mother’s Venidaan and subsequent tonsure on the Holy River’s bank, Nandini also resolved that she also would do it once, as early as she could grow hair after her Tirupati tonsure – maybe six or seven years hence.

Madhuri became two years old. Nandini’s hair had grown just as long as it had been when she got married three years previously. As had been decided, Nandini, Vikas, Madhuri, Gayatri, Nandini’s father and Rakesh visited Tirupati. First, the Mundan (first tonsure of a child) of Madhuri was conducted with all religiosity. Next the remaining five members – two females and three males got tonsured one after another by the same barber, sitting cross legged on the floor. Rakesh and Vikas by turn videotaped the tonsures. Nandini was excited seeing her beautiful mother go bald happily. Especially, she was overjoyed to see the first gray bald patch emerge among a forest of shiny black strands on Gayatri’s head. Now, her three year old fantasy, created and nurtured by her doting mother, of sitting cross-legged in a religious place such as Tirupati and getting tonsured, was coming to a reality.

She unbraided her hair quickly and sat down in front of the barber with that ecstatic smile. He thoroughly wetted her hair in about 3 minutes. He put a new blade in the razor and started shaving the hair from the forehead. With a lot of effort and religiosity, Nandini held herself from going overboard with any orgasm. She was feeling so excited at the first touch of the blade on her head. When the first few wet strands of her hair fell down tickling her cheeks, she could not believe that all this was reality. Her smile grew wider as the bald patch on her head became broader. Now the left side, now the right side, now the nape, finally the stray hair missed here and there – Nandini became bald for the second time in three years. She never wore anything on her head and proudly went around with her bare bald head.

True to her desire, four more years hence, she got the chance of going bald at Prayag, which she was eagerly looking forward to. Vikas was posted to Varanasi and this helped her Prayag dream very much. With her third child in her womb almost due for delivery she sat on the banks of Ganga in Prayag cross-legged wearing a brand new sari, got her butt length hair snipped off close to her nape by Vikas as Venidaan and got tonsured smooth immediately thereafter by a barber. You see, in Prayag, it is auspicious for even pregnant women to get tonsured, which is generally prohibited elsewhere. When Nandini, bald for the third time in seven years, gave birth to a son just four days later, her doctor congratulated her, being the first bald woman to give birth in her medical career of 12 years.