The Russian Hat

The maximum heat is radiated out of your head. Time to cover your head. As the temperature drop in State College, the clothing increases proportionally. Muffler, gloves, jacket and finally the cap. Its a lot of clothing. It takes five minutes to dress and probably the same time to undress. Sometimes you feel strange to carry all these around. But they are extremely essential.

So I have cap which has an ugly brown color with ear protection. I bought before coming to State College. As the temperatures dropped to ridiculously lower levels, I had no options than to wear it. I never like to wear a winter cap and my mother would know that. As a kid I used hide the cap so that my mother could not find it. She took me to every possible shop in Model Town, but I won't budge. Sometimes it was the color and sometimes it was the coarseness of the cap. Tired she would buy me something and put it on my head next morning. I still remember when my Papa would drop me off at school and as soon as the sound of his old pristine scooter would disappear the cap would come off. But that was Delhi and not State College.

So the brown winter cap is on my head where ever I go. On streets and sometimes in IST. As the winter became more severe so were the curious looks of the people towards me. First I ignored but soon it became very uncomfortable. On streets girls and boys would give me stare. I really do not mind a girl stare but I lot of staring is certainly uninvited.

But then one of my friends saw my cap and remarked that it was a Russian Hat. A Russian Hat! That explains the whole staring issue. A Desi wearing a Russian Hat does not digest at all. This gives rise to a lot of crazy questions in everybody's minds. Like, A desi born in Des, migrated to Russia and then to America. Or, A Russian moving to India and then US. Or........Possibilities are endless.