Ladies after bath

                                                            Ladies after bath

“You should pay extra charges for this” ..Our maid servant Ammalu demanded. She was oiling my sisters long black hair. It was when sister just delivered a baby girl, mini, and I was sitting there to see when she will open her little eyes and look at me…Ammalu continued...”And I will do this free for Pappa (me) when this time come for her, she won’t be having this much of hair any way..”

I cried a lot then. My sister tried her best to pacify me...”See, your features are like Dhevi vellimma.(Father’s elder sister.)you also will have long hair when you are grown up..But I started crying louder, though  vellimma had long curly hair,she was a well built, dark lady who was never a favorite with me..I stopped crying after a secret promise of Feradol(a sweet medicine popular that time,meant for ladies after delivery which young girls were not supposed to take)) But there started my lifelong longing for long hair like my sisters. My sisters were having wheatish colour, and long straight hair. I was on the darker side having curly hair…I always felt that I was the black sheep in the family..I started applying all types of hair oils, shampoos etc, hoping that my hair will grow fast..Nothing happened. Mother used to prepare a medicated oil for all, with many herbs,and nobody leaves home without a bottle of that oil. She used to put burned coconut shell powder also in the oil which gave a darker color to hair..But I didn’t trusted in it, applied bottles and bottles of arnica hair oil,neeli bhringhadi,kunthalakanthiayurvedic oil,and almost all the oils which appeared in Vanitha(a ladies magazine)and my effort  still continues..

When i started my profession as a painter,i painted  all ladies with long hair.This painting is one among them...

Two ladies sitting in the varanda, adjacent to the central courtyard ,wearing traditional Kerala dress-mundu and veshti.

In olden times,It was a practice to smoke the long hair of Kerala women after the bath. Red hot-coal will be  taken in a small brass vessel with a long handle and medicinal herbs will be added to it. Resulting smoke imparts a nice smell to the hair and freed it from infections.

                                                               Oil on canvas

                                             Jahangir art gallery show  Mumbai