Every time I visit the nearby Saloon for a haircut I find another new face ready to clip my locks with the abandon of an excitable Gen Zee kid ! It then becomes incumbent upon me to explain my styling conditions to them afresh – a civilised ‘senior citizen’ cut with no ‘Mohawk’ style uprising in the middle or the military crew cut scraping the ears..
This time around I was attended upon by a guy who’s first admonition to my requests was ‘Tension, Mat Lo !’ when I tried to tell him the basics of my hairdo ! I immediately liked his ‘Abhishek Dipke’ like confidence as he tried to assuage my fears. He went on to extol the virtues of being ‘Tension free’ in life – when having a haircut or otherwise dealing with people in general.
I had to ask him his age to which he cheekily said ‘Uncle Guess karo’ – so I ‘Shayad 16 hoga’. He puffed his 32″ chest & said ‘Kya Uncle, I’m 20’. To keep up this lively chat, I said ‘What’s Mine? and he replied ‘Uncle, 50 hoga’ ! Now I wanted to give him a shock – ‘Beta, add your age to that 50′ ! He looked mighty impressed and said ’70 mein bhi itne baal hai !’
All this while there were new film songs playing on a small TV on the wall. They appeared soothing but I couldn’t recognise any of them. But my peppy hairdresser was humming along.With all my knowledge of old Hindi songs, known by heart, now I can’t recall a word of these new numbers. Were we now becoming music-deaf or were today’s songs so forgettable ?
As I finally left after my reasonably good haircut, my new Gen Zee friend asked ‘All Ok Uncle, ki kuch aur karon ?’ After all, the fellow knew his job & could handle someone 50 years older with the ease of a professional!
Working on Living 