Be heard, beard!

Today is the day a thousand dreams took shape; the day when Telangana became the 29th state of India. Celebrating its first formation day, the state of Telangana has broken into an impromptu jig and how. While many are in a reverie, here’s a man who’s taken to fashion to make a statement. Meet Santhosh Manduva, who runs a social service organisation Sulakshya Seva Samithi which strives for the well being of the underprivileged.

So, while many were busy distributing sweets and shouting Jai Telangana, this dude was in a salon.

In a salon?

Yes. Doing what?

Getting his beard shaved, silly.

The only slight twist here is, he had the alphabets ‘TS’ shaved on his face. TS means? Telangana state. The masters at Inspire Salon aren’t giving into Santhosh’s out-of-the-box requests for the first time. “I’ve always wanted to be different. I have always been trying different beard styles. In 2011 during the cricket world cup when India the reached the finals, I shaved my beard with  letters India on one side of the cheek and trophy on the other.”

Quite novel, isn’t it?

So, yes, cricket World Cup, we understand, but this fixation with Telangana comes across as very unusual.

Santhosh explains, “I used to follow the news since my childhood. During the second phase of agitation which started and got intensified in 2009, I had gone through newspapers and some books and came to know how Telangana was oppressed, betrayed and looted by the Seemandhra rulers and as a citizen of Telangana it was my right to fight for self rule

though telangana was a surplus state by all means.”

Since then, the drive to etch a new state had been simmering inside him. He says, “It was due to the Seemandhra rulers that Telangana faced many problems and Telanganaites were treated as second grade citizens. Self respect  and self rule was the only solution for this.

I took active part in the agitation as a member of many forums and even i was very active in the social media.”

The biggest question here is, what goes in as prep for these kind of beards? Well, planning is one of the most important aspects here. “Initially it was difficult for the guys at the salon, but on seeing my passion, he too tried for the first time and did a good job. Now, it has become lot easy for both of us. Usually I need to grow my beard from 20-24 days for a shape and I plan it well in advance.”

Talk about doing it in style!