India Heads

As our travels in India drew to a close, my partner, Deb, and I
started making the gruesome transformation from travellers into
tourists, with the strange result that we were doing a hell of a lot
more travelling.

We were discussing our degradation with a group of our fellow India
Heads. They were clearly unsympathetic.

"We are travellers, not tourists and we are each doing India in our own
individual ways" they declared while their piercings and dreadlocks
bounced and flapped together in unison as if to punctuate the
point.

At one point, someone must have bounced when they should have flapped
as a stray dreadlock became caught in someone's nose ring. The
unintended unification of such staunch individuals momentarily
splintered the oneness of the group. Didgeridoos and juggling sticks
splayed wildly in a tie-dyed whirlpool as the group struggled, leaving
them most dreadfully locked together. Only one bald chap, who had been
cruelly denied dreadlockability by nature, was spared, but joined in
the struggle anyway for fear of being the odd(est) one out. Not one
clump of hair, nor nose ring, nor even prince albert escaped
entanglement as the India Heads wrestled like (metallically and
follicley) co-joined wookies.

Fortunately, being spoilt generation xers, the India Heads had all
experienced braces as adolescents and were well versed in picking hair
from metal. They were soon free again.

"Let us all hold hands and chant 'we are all one' as a testament to our
shared struggle for freedom" implored one girl, a student, with a peace
sign on her bosom and steel in her boots.

"No" interjected a holidaying stock broker wearing a designer Che
Guvera t-shirt "Let us all walk around in a circle chanting 'we are all
individuals' as a testament to our freedom from our shared
struggle".

In the end, a compromise was reached whereby the India Heads walked
around in a circle chanting 'we are all one individual' each
participant gently clutching a single dreadlock of the person ahead of
them. The bald guy felt dejected that he was unable to join the group
display of individuality, so he went off and did his own thing.

Unsure of what to do, we started heading off while the India Heads
continued their circular procession as a testament to their shared
logic. We departed unnoticed as the India Heads became caught in
another unfortunate entanglement. They were debating which of them
deserved the title of 'traveller in residence' for having spent the
most months at the one guesthouse.

Make's me proud to be have been an India Head.