Pogonotrophy and the joy of being 'beardiful'

Sandeep Goyal examines the culture of the beard and its significance in these WFH times

Known for his penchant for rarely used English words, Shashi Tharoor, sent the Twitterati running for their dictionaries last week with another head scratcher — pogonotrophy—which means the growing or cultivation of a beard. Mr Tharoor used the word to take an apparent good-natured dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has allowed his beard to grow considerably longer during the past pandemic months, giving him almost a Rabindranath Tagore like look.

It is kind of coincidental, and somewhat surprising, that men’s facial hair is suddenly the subject of much academic discussion, and attention too. In his recent book, Anthro-Vision, Gillian