I was hardly a dozen-year-old when I first noticed a grey hair on my head. The very sight bamboozled me because I associated grey hair with mature people over the age of 40. I was afraid to have become old at 12. The fear of friends calling me an oldie gripped my mind.

I plucked the only grey hair along with other black ones. The feeling was indeed great as if I had climbed Mount Everest. Everything was going fine until one day one of my not-so-good friends noticed a couple of grey hairs on my head and started teasing me. I flexed my muscles and threatened him if he spoke about it to others.

With constant plucking the number grew by leaps and bounds. I was tired of plucking them as a single pluck resulted in four more appearing on my head. It was time to join college. My grey hair would be clearly visible even from a distance. I resorted to dyeing my hair. I became relaxed as grey hair was no longer visible. But the happiness was short-lived as the dye faded away within a month, exposing more grey hair than before. This became a pere-nnial problem. I was tired of hiding them but was also happy as I saw many others, including girls, with a lot of silver threads. The only consolation was the fact that they were of my age or even younger. Those sights were very pleasing to my eyes. I stopped using hair dye but sometimes used the traditional mehandi.

One question that haunted me is why it is called grey hair and not white? It doesn’t appear to be grey from any sense. I put forth this question to my English teacher but she had no answer. No matter what it is called it doesn’t bother me much nowadays as the hair on my head has become like earth — one-third portion covered with black and the rest with grey hair.

Initially the sight of grey hair became a psychological barrier and put me under tremendous pressure. But now I think it is not a sign of premature ageing. In fact it is a sign of maturity and deep understanding that comes after years of experience. But for me and many others like me, the maturity and understanding has come quite early. Which is why whenever I receive appreciation for my deeds, I proudly reply: “Now you know why my hair turned grey so early!”