Stubble: Style And Survival

“Stubble” has become a word that is increasingly used. In fact, it has become almost as common as the present buzzword, “disruptive”, which has entered the popular lexicon in a big way. Growing up, one interpreted the word as being negative; now, as an adjective prefixed to technology or innovation, it has a hugely positive connotation and is the holy grail for all wannabe-unicorn entrepreneurs.

Those into word counts as an indicator of what is essential (a standard mode of analysing President Xi’s reports and speeches) might study contemporary Indian newspapers to determine the frequency of occurrence of “stubble”. Doubtless, they will find it is very high. The reference is mainly to the stubble left behind after harvesting the paddy crop, especially in certain states. Its subsequent burning brings tears – literally – to many eyes, besides possible lung aches. This is the result of pollution caused by the smoke from stubble burning, compounded by other factors.

There is another form of stubble, not as frequently written about, but nowadays almost as ubiquitous: the sprouting of facial hair. Those with the two-days-unshaven look inevitably dominate photographs of celebrities and ads with male models. Adding to this in recent times is the daily appearance on TV of stubble-adorned President Zelensky. This, along with his attire – often an olive-green t-shirt – gives one the sense that he has just returned from the battle zone after pushing back the Russian troops. Maybe he is actually returning from the frontline after a few sleepless nights there. Obversely, maybe he has spent much time carefully cultivating an unkempt look! After all, perfecting that careless look does take a lot of care and effort.

On the other hand, there are in-the-news leaders who are always dressed to near-perfection, almost like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. These include President Putin, generally perfectly “suited” (except when he is amidst his sporting adventures) and Rishi Sunak. The latter, in proper tie and suit, indicates informality by only and at most, loosening his tie-knot. Then, there is our own Prime Minister, with his always-immaculate couture, which includes colourful and perfectly-fitted Nehru jackets (now often called Modi jackets, thanks to his popularising them). Boris Johnson, like his present successor, kept up the image of the English gentleman by being generally suited, though his hairstyle (if one can call it that) is an unkempt, just-woke-up mop. He must spend much waking time getting it just right.

These changing mores of dress and appearance pose challenges in the corporate world. Some use the stubble as an indicator that they worked all night on that important assignment and did not have time to even shave in the last few days. However, they should worry that the boss might interpret it as resulting from continuous all-night partying. So, instead of being impressed, the boss perceives you as a drowsy person with a hangover, casual about office etiquette and work: not a very good portent for your career. Of course, if you have a younger or in-fashion boss, he too may have a stubble; how you interpret that is up to you!

Stubbles, like much else in our life, have been facilitated by technology. The fashionable look requires an oxymoron: a well-kept stubble. The genuine stubble – resulting from not shaving for a couple of days – is likely to be uneven and not terribly good-looking. The fashionable one, in contrast, is a well-trimmed and neatly shaped stubble.

This fashion of the day is, sadly, a reminder of another stubble: the farm residue which causes a seasonal catastrophe that results in unbreathable and health-destroying pollution due to its burning. Though its impact on the air in Delhi is much in the news, its insidious effect extends across the whole Indo-Gangetic plain. Made worse by atmospheric conditions (low winds, temperature inversions, fog which turns to smog), the air quality is so alarming that one breathes a sigh of relief on days when, in the safety classification, it is “very poor”!

Many studies have shown how badly polluted air causes long-term health problems, sometimes even life-threatening ones. Though only partly due to the smoke and particles from stubble burning, it is the last straw on the camel’s back. Along with construction dust, vehicular emissions, and industrial pollution, it is a toxic mix, made worse for a few days by Diwali fireworks. This is now a yearly problem, extending over three months or more each year, as predictable as the monsoon floods in Bihar.

Every year there are headlines in newspapers and breaking news on TV about the dangerous levels of pollution; as predictable as political leaders bemoaning it and blaming someone else. Knee-jerk, band-aid “solutions” (sometimes with fancy names like Graded Action Response Plan) are rolled out, including fines, subsidies, fog-mist cannons, mechanised dust cleaners and other apparently-new technologies or equipment. Ideas like “odd, even” (allowing only half the cars to run on any given day) have been tried and abandoned. Despite the many solutions, one is yet to see any perceptible and substantial difference in the quality of air. 

The long-term solution to the stubble problem is to change the cropping pattern, which will also help conserve scarce sub-soil water. The perverse incentive – through free electricity and so free sub-soil water pumping – to grow paddy in the wrong agro-climatic region is worsened by the minimum support price for rice relative to other necessary grains (millet for example). Correcting the latter and giving a per-hectare grant to farmers in lieu of free electricity, could solve the stubble problem at a minimal political cost. It will also help to conserve power. Will some leaders take this bold step?

While one stubble causes no problem to others (except in cheek-to-cheek interactions), the other is disastrous. In the New Year, may one prosper and the other disappears.