For want of a Nail

Nails and hair spare no one, they grow and need to be cut to size, I am obviously referring to the male of the species. Females as we are aware, let these grow to the peril of others, although long tresses have been considered an object of beauty since ages. Many a poets especially Urdu and Hindi variety have compared them to the dark clouds, serpents and what not. Nails on the other hand when grown do make the shape of the hand more shapely probably that is the reason girls decide to grow them long. No wonder Salons make quite a killing with their pedicure and manicure procedures. In fact these days nail art itself is quite a business. Although it must be quite a painstaking exercise for the person concerned as also her near and dear ones, after all a finely chiselled nail can be more than just a nuisance. I know I am in dangerous territory here when I am referring to this piece of  human anatomy but then a little bit of flirting with danger is the spice of life. An extended palm with the sharp nails grown long can be quite a deadly weapon, if it is aimed at the jugular. Guess what, mostly these are painted bright red, the colour of blood, signs are ominous. Even otherwise just a brush with them can leave you scarred, so don't mess with them.

 Be that as it may, thankfully my better half is not fond of grown nails, she clips them and files them short. I was reminded of this business with nails as I was hunting for the nail cutter. This is an accessory which we just can't do without. Like short crewcut hairstyle that we have sported all our lives, our nails too have remained as short as they can be. Any growth has to be immediately tackled and if the nail cutter does the missing trick then it's a calamity. We turn the house upside down looking for it and will only rest when either it is found or a new one replaces it to give the fingers some relief. I got stuck rather badly once, travelling abroad for the first time, the security check staff at the airport found my nail cutter in the toilet bag. I was asked to hand that over and that was the last I saw of that exquisite Made in Korea piece which had given me good service for almost a decade plus. I protested vehemently as during domestic air travel, those days they did not check nail cutters and on an odd occasion even the moustache trimming scissors could also scrape through. They promptly showed me the picture where a nail cutter was a prohibited item in the cabin baggage. Now come to think of it hijackers have been known to use innovative means to coerce and scare the crew into submission, but granting the lowly nail cutter such an exalted status as a weapon seemed ridiculous to me. Some of you may recall the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane  by Pandey duo in protest against arrest of Mrs Gandhi in 1978. The weapons used were a Cricket ball and a toy pistol. 

As a result I was stuck in this francophone country Cote d'Ivoire trying to find a nail cutter, quite a herculean task, as the growing nails do tend to become quite an obsession and we constantly are looking at them apprehensively as though they would unleash a spate of terror. I finally found one though not as good as the one which landed up in the bin at the airport. We can't imagine using any other sharp object in lieu for this purpose. The old timers didn't need nail clippers, they could use razor blades or they would wait for the hairdressers to do the needful, especially the tough ones, the toe nails. 

Nails protect the fingers, are called skin appendages and are made up of alpha-keratin, but the other nails which are metallic are equally important as you would recall, "For want of a nail the kingdom was lost".  During our training in NDA, we had ammunition boots which had 13 nails and a horse shoe in the sole of the shoe. 

The uninitiated must be wondering the purpose of these nails and horse shoe, no the latter was not a good luck charm, but once armed with these appendages the shoes were formidable both in terms of noise and weight. With these shoes, the drill movements were supposed to be not just seen but also heard from miles away. Each word of command of “halt” or “thum” sent down a wave of tremor in the vicinity.  The tremors did more damage to our tiny little grey cells over the years, that is quite obvious as you read this than to our poor knees, who also bore the brunt. As we grow old  those nails send painful reminders  to the knees which have started to creak and our little grey cells have already taken leave much earlier.  Before this becomes the "last nail in the coffin", I better stop, whether I have nailed it or not, is for you to decide....