(Photo of a baby girl at her ‘mundan’ ceremony). This was a prompt on a lovely Facebook group that I am fortunate to be a part of. This is what I came up with (an attempt at Haiku).
‘Snip..snip.. Curly locks fall gently to the ground.
Baby girl, you have no choice!
The first of many sacrifices.’
Writer-z-block 
16 replies on “Snip snip…”
Good one 🙂 Glad I didn’t have a mundan and neither did my daughter
You girls have gorgeous hair. Makes me wonder if there is a technical/scientific reasoning behind the Mundan ceremony?
My science head can’t find one – as in, one hair follicle will have one hair – right? irrespective of shaving or not. Shaving makes the hair coarse, (or thick, if that satisfies pro-Mundan-ers). [I should stop here before I start inventing more weird words].
Ipshita… I thought of you last week, when I went for a hair-cut… the staff/girl said that apparently, 3 hair strands emerge from each follicle. Hmmm.. food for thought, eh?
Hmmm! Few words but says a lot
Viishal
Thank you very much Vishal
Nice verse, Pallavi 🙂
Thank you so much Usha. Coming from you, that means a lot!!
I didnt have a mundan too nor would I let my son have it… though I do shave my head now ! I feel its too brutal for kids !
Oh yes it is indeed brutal, because they use a really sharp blade and the poor child’s head looks so vulnerable!!!!
The last line had me!!!
Thank you Smita
Pal, you should do more of this kind. It hits where it hurts & the msg comes out extra strong.
And, just for the record, I am a big fan of yours ever since i read your 55-ers. 🙂
You are such a huge motivation!!!!! Really!!! Thank you for your kind words, as always.
I loved the last line!
Thank you so much dear.
Thank u so much , everyone… will respond individually soon 🙂
@ Pal
This is a part of Hindu culture and Hindus believe in reincarnation, it is said that the hair the baby is born with is the last thing it takes with it from its previous life. It’s shaved so the baby can start this life with a fresh start.
At least, that’s the main reason behind why hindus shave babies hair.
Thank you for that explanation Harry. I was not aware of it.
Hindus also believes that a soul carries burden of back/past life, before it’s given new body again, and only thing that connects to the back life is the hair it comes with, when the soul comes with new body again. So to break this connection, hindus must shave babies hair to release the new born with the burden from the past.
Well technically many babies are born bald 🙂 And even if I did believe this bit, then 2 questions crop up. 1) Mundan is done only at the end of the first year, so that means the bond is broken only after a year of the child’s birth? 2) Releasing babies from the ‘burden’ of the past contradicts our ‘Pichle janam ka Karma’ philosophy, right?
Now that baby is part of your family unit, you as a person must make sure that it does not carry any weight / burden , and also it’s got nothing to do with it’s previous life now that’s part of yours and it’s actions that’s resulted in new birth. Thus the hair shaving ritual.
This is the most important ritual in hindus, in terms of birth. On the plus side, if you don’t shave babies hair, the baby will grow in to an adult with very fine and less hair on the head.
Hmmm… scientific reasoning is always welcome Harry 🙂
More you shave thicker it grows and I think most ladies know about this as well.
Hallooo.. why only ladies??!!! 😉
P.S: Thank you for coming back to read my blog Harry.
HARRY
Not everybody does Mundan on their first birthday. If you look at people in other part of India they do it after baby’s first month or whenever they think it’s ok. My kids all had theirs after their first month and none of them were bold.
Hmmm…yes, it does vary from one family/custom to another!!
My Mrs is spending £1000+ on IPL treatment for unwanted hair, even tho I don’t mind, and most men wouldn’t care if they had hair in places which you should. I think hair is an issue for women rather then men. And when I say this I’m talking about real men not metrosexual men, if you know what I mean. 🙂
He he, I’ll leave it at that, Harry 🙂
Errr…WB,you know what, R had a mundan. Its pretty common in Hindu Tambram families for both girls and boys to have mundan after their first bday and before then second one…R had one (honestly I am thankful she had because her hair was infested with lice!) and so did I 🙂
He he, my child had a mundan too. Kindly take a look at my response to Amit 🙂
This sacrifice is shared equally by girls and boys. 🙂
Yes, you are right Amit. I focussed on the girls’ sentiment, but you are right. This is something that both genders do. So it is perhaps the first of many sacrifices at the altar of custom/tradition.
Thankfully, we dont have the custom of ‘mundan’ for babies…
But, you have, as usual written so beautifully! 🙂
AWww thank you Pix!!
[…] Also, I copied the pic from here and I didn’t mention it earlier… So sorry!! I read Hitchy’s post and realised […]
seriously what is with this mundan ceremony? and you know earlier in Bengal widows were also made to cut off their tresses.