You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion

Carefully look at the person in this photograph:

Source

Is he:
a. Saudi?
b. Iraqi?
c. Indian?
d. Persian?
e. Afghan?
f. Italian?

Could be any one of those, right?

Now, consider the following photo of the same person without the beard:

Source

Is he:
a. Saudi?
b. Iraqi?
c. Indian?
d. Persian?
e. Afghan?
f. Italian?

Not sure, eh!

Look at the two photos again.  Doesn't the one with the beard seem more like a Muslim and the clean-shaven one more like a non-Muslim?

Doesn't the guy portrayed in the photo below look like a Muslim?

Source

Yep, that is the point.

The first two photos are of the same person--Amit Majmudar.  I have blogged about him before.

So, why do I blog about Majmudar and his photos with and without a beard?

Here's why:

Especially as a guy with a #beard, and being from the Subcontinent, I loved Amit #Majmudar's poem in @NewYorkerhttps://t.co/qt3TYnsg0G

— Am.Dr.Khe (@congoboy) July 4, 2017

Read that poem at the source that I have linked to.  Better yet, listen to Majmudar read that poem.

Oh, in case you are waiting for the correct answer to the multiple-choice question, yes, Majmudar is an American.  Ok, yes, an Indian-American.

In my previous post, I wrote:

Amit Majmudar is yet another Indian-American who makes me feel like I am nothing but a blabbering idiot who does nothing. Majmudar is a radiologist, novelist, poet, and writes commentaries. And, yes, he is a family man. Seriously, isn't that supposed to be four different people? And, oh, he is yet to turn forty! I hate such people who make a good-for-nothing out of me!!! ;)

Majmudar has more to say about his dual career life:

 Majmudar, whose poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2007 and periodicals like The New Yorker and The Atlantic, won the 2011 Donald Justice Prize. Majmudar was amused when asked to explain why many Indian-American doctors are also writers, prominent examples being Abraham Verghese, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Atul Gawande. “I don’t know why that is,” he said, “except if you look at the Indians who came over in the sixties and seventies many were doctors like my parents. Medicine is the Majmudar family profession. My sister and I are also doctors. Going forward, I don’t think we will see this split. If someone is interested in writing, he will go into writing, and that will be the end of it.”

May a million writers--bearded or not--bloom!

ps: the title of this post is a G.K. Chesterton quote.