All shaven and shorn

In childhood, everyone is in awe of some aged relative-sometimes for reasons as corny as their remarkable capacity for belching or sneezing or snoring or passing wind.

- K.C. VERMA

As children, we sometimes found the foibles of grownups delightful or amusing, and sometimes even disgusting. But all the quirky grownups and their kinks were memorable! I have had my share of idiosyncratic relatives, but the one who was outstandingly peculiar was a granduncle, whom everyone called 'Baba' The whole family has memories of his many eccentricities but, above all, he is remembered for what came to be called the 'Great Shaving Tamasha!'

Baba had a tough beard and he managed to grow the most bristly fuzz in just a day. In spite of or maybe because of-this, he never shaved on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays and Sundays were in any case days of rest. The grand show was therefore mercifully confined to just thrice a week. The tamasha used to start early on the earmarked days, and the whole household remained in a tizzy for two hours or more.