When mustaches were fun...!

A short story in school revealed to us something interesting about mustaches, something that even the boys didn’t know. In fact,… it would be right to say that our parents and even grandparents were not aware or maybe never gave it a thought.

Well, here is what was so unknown yet known to our parents… and for us, the days when mustaches were fun!

It is a short story, A Pair of Mustachios by Mulk Raj Anand. An interesting piece of work that brought a lot of humor in our boring English classes. A story that revealed how mustaches marked the difference among people in society during the time of our grandparents and before. But most interesting of all, this time it became a big activity in school! Suddenly, the students of an all-girls’ school were talking about mustaches! And searching them too!!

A boy in an all-girls’ school is so rare and one who dares to come in is not spared from the constant stares and giggles of the girls. (Probably the only place where even the most flamboyant of men would feel like escaping from so much female attention!)

And even more now as we were searching for the perfect mustaches!

The 1st to match the list was the Lion mustache – the fearsome mustache worn by Rajas, Maharajas. The best and the highest ranked of all but unfortunately, for us, the most uninteresting of the lot. You could only find it in old photographs. Though we thought one of our classmate’s driver wore them. I still remember, some girls went up to the old driver and asked him “uncle aapki lion mustache hai naa?” and the driver was totally clueless! But we had got the first one on our list!

Now for the most difficult on the search list - the several pointed Tiger mustache. Actually, my father had a Tiger mustache but no one in school...

But the thin line of goat mustache was the most exciting! And what made it so was the wearer! Interestingly, our extremely overweight principal’s extremely underweight son wore it. It was the easiest of all to point out as he was the only boy allowed to move around in school. He was a regular sight, regular to the extent of non-existence! And when we pointed this out in the English class, even the teacher had a hearty laugh!

We were busy finding the other mustaches in our list, laughing, giggling and engrossed in full-fledged discussion when we suddenly noticed our Tiger mustache!

Our school Judo teacher walked into the school after 2-3 years with his same old mustache which was so new to us now! The Tiger Mustache!

We saw him during the lunch hour at school and all started talking in excitement. And then ran towards him, “Sir… sir… good afternoon, sir, how r u sir…” and all smiles.

And there went our last and most searched for name on the list. We had found our Tiger mustache!



Link to A Pair of Mustachios by Mulk Raj Anand.