You may go hoarse saying it but 'Bald is beautiful' is one of those platitudes coined by losers, like, 'It's not about winning, it's about how you play the game' or 'It's the experience that counts'.

 Here's a bald cynic's viewpoint

Let's look at the forty-plus individuals we've elected president of the United States. All but five of them have been men of hair. Who were the five brave baldies who managed to slip past the guards? John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams — both one-termers. Martin Van Buren, who embellished his naked pate by puffing out his remaining locks in the manner later adopted by Larry of The Three Stooges — also booted out after a single term. Next baldy on the roster: James A. Garfield. They shot him. After Garfield's demise, a full seventy-two years would pass before another hair-impaired president took the oath of office: the wildly popular World War II hero, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Did America's voters like Ike because he had rescued Europe from the Nazis and led the Allies to a resounding victory? It would be pleasant to think so, but I fear the real reason is that his opponent, Adlai Stevenson, had even less hair than Ike. The only other balding chief exec, Gerald Ford, simply stepped in for the deposed Nixon and failed to be elected in his own right. The man who vanquished him was an eminently thatched Georgian named Jimmy Carter. So there you have it: over two hundred years of American presidents, and only twenty-three years of baldness in the White House to date.

While the same has not been true of Indian Prime Ministers, that is probably because the PM isn't directly elected by the people, unlike the American celebrity circus. Where it really counts, namely Bollywood, there's plenty of evidence that the hirsutely challenged have had to wear a hair shirt in their pursuit of success. Just let one shiny patch appear on the top and we see hide nor hair of them as they transplant themselves westward. If you don't see the correlation, all you have to do place in your cross hairs the superstars of Indian cinema, both past and present and what do you know, every one of them has been follicularly blessed. Their hair has been their crowning glory, you might say. Even the villains resort to toupees, with the poor baldies being relegated to the sobbing father or the sidekick's role. 

In the upcoming Presidential elections therefore, it not surprising that John Edwards is investing in 400 dollar haircuts. After all, he did lose the last elections by a hair's breadth. Or that the media is constantly splitting hairs about it. Of all the presidential candidates in both parties, only Rudy Giuliani is bald and we all know about his hair trigger temper. The only consolation is that he will never have a bad hair day. 

The moral of the story is  -if you crave the spotlight make sure it can't reflect off your pate. If you don't, just let your hair down. There's no point in pulling your hair out because, remember, a hair on the head is worth two on the brush.

The first thing I do when I wake up is put toothpaste on my brush and clean my teeth. After my morning routine, I walk downstairs and put my ceramic mug in the microwave and make some tea. I sit down to read the comics in color for a few minutes.

Then it's time to change into my jeans and t-shirt and wake the kids. They get dressed, eat a healthy breakfast of sausages and vitamin-enriched cereal and get their backpacks ready for school. Today is their first day and they have to take their school supplies – pens, crayons, glue, tissue and paper.

After they leave, it's time to clean up the house a little. I trip over my son's toy car and pick up pieces of my daughter's  Polly Pocket ensemble.  Then it's time to get down to work . I sit on  my comfortable  office chair at my  cheap desk  and turn on my computer. 

At lunch I sit on my newly painted patio and to eat eggs( from chicken grown on whole grain feed) and enriched bread. I make a list of minor household chores. Hmm.. need to change the leaky washer in the downstairs sink, need new frames for the portraits of the kids, got to get a pair of running shoes.

At the end of the day, I'm exhausted..better take some medicine. Oh wait! 

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she approaches a jigsaw puzzle. I, for instance, will always complete the sky portion first. My logic is that if I will be too tired for the grunt work towards the end and will probably give up.

Not that any one has the time for puzzles these days. I owe my experience to my 5 year old, who insisted I start the puzzle(presumably for the sheer pleasure of getting to open the box). She disappeared shortly thereafter, leaving me with a sawdust-filled set of 500 odd pieces. As any puzzle aficionado knows, not knowing if the set is complete can be downright demotivating. Still, having a relatively free week, I decided to take up the challenge and learned some life lessons in the bargain.

 –         Pick a puzzle that is slightly out of your comfort zone but not too difficult.

–         You have to assume the pieces are all there and you will complete the puzzle- or your attitude could kill the game before it starts

–         Sometimes it’s all about trying it one at a time. In the early stages of building the sky, there is no substitute for hard work. There are no clues, no shortcuts.

–         The piece you need maybe right in your hand, but you’re not looking at it the right way.

–         A tiny squiggle could be a letter, a piece of a tree or a lady’s hat – anything is possible.

–         Pause when it stops making sense. You’re probably too tired. Try it again later.

–         Give yourself plenty of time to complete it- but set a deadline. In my case it is the date when my house will be cleaned next. Without the deadline, the puzzle is going to languish and the next toddler visitor will eat some pieces.

–         Look like you’re having fun and you will get help. My commitment to the puzzle drew the wildly erratic attention of my older child who spent a quiet 45 minutes putting in some of the pieces – 45 minutes that are so precious to me.

–         When the spaces remaining are few enough to be counted against the pieces left –resist. Even if it looks like you have too many spaces to fill compared to the pieces on hand, keep going. You may be surprised at the end.

–         Celebrate when you are done.

–         Thank the people who made it possible for you to spend such singularly unproductive time on something you enjoy. Thanks, hubby dearest, thanks kids.

–         A jigsaw puzzle may be one of the few things in your life over which you have complete control. Go get one today.