Dhoni’s Achilles’ Hair

I don’t know whether Mahendra Singh Dhoni has ever heard of Samson and Delilah, that classic fable of zionism and misogyny. Maybe he has seen the DVD of the 1950 Cecil de Mille adaptation (its poster tag, “HISTORY’S MOST BEAUTIFUL AND TREACHEROUS WOMAN!” (Caps in the original)

Anyway, what has it got to do with Dhoni?

Hair.

Samson, the fable goes, was born to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines and God granted him tremendous strength to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats. He falls in love with Delilah and Philistines induce her to find the secret of Samson’s strength. Samson shares the holy secret with Delilah that his strength is in his hair. Delilah cuts off the locks and Samson is captured by Philistines.

Who tempted Dhoni to shed his tresses, nobody knows. But we damn well know that at least one guy had tried to avert the calamity.

The Pakistan Supremo (ex, hopefully) General Parvez Musharraf.

Remember what the General had said to Dhoni after the Lahore ODI in 2006 (Dhoni had demolished the Paks with an unbeaten 79 off 46 balls):

“I saw a placard which said ‘Dhoni have a haircut’. If you want to take my opinion, don’t have a hair cut.”

Don’t have a hair cut! If only Dhoni had heeded the General!

One should never ignore such an opinion from a man who had made a career by splitting hairs and making many a hair stand on end.

Dhoni’s downfall has got everything to do with the fall of those gorgeous locks, I believe.

He lost that wonderful multifarious self and became just another ‘man’; a mortal player, like any other sonny from Bombay, Chandigarh or Kochi. Looking back one could see that the popular hair cream commercial with his ‘new look’ was an omen. Remember the shock with which he asks his uncle, “you too mama?” Estrangement has always been an agonizing companion.

I hope he would take a look at the “power, punishment, and status” segment in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair with his aircel mobile and I also hope he would let his hair grow back. Everyone deserves a second chance.

Well, I am not sure about Viru though. It seems he has lost it all.

Hair, I mean.