professions

Snipping Scissors !

Just back from the customary visit to my hair dresser, aka the ‘barber’ !

The one that i frequent is a 5 minute walk from home, and a once in a fortnight affair. Tending to keep my hair short, these visits are necessitated. Out of the five in the ‘saloon’ ( as it is pronounced ) there is one, that knows the contours of my head perfectly. I mean, the outer part of my head.

I enter the saloon, and ‘my man’ who sits reading a newspaper springs up. We make eye contact. He smiles. No words spoken. The scissors do all the talking. On the background the television thats on, with a melodramatic Telegu movie that is on. I can see ‘my man’ watching television through the mirror.

And as the heroine cries, i feel the scissors are snipping away my hair at an increased pace. My heart skips many a beat. From nowhere the hero appears, and the knife seems to be wielded with amazing accuracy on the screen. With an apprehensive fear, i look at ‘my man’ on the mirror.

His eyes dart between the television and my head. By now, i was sure he was all set to leave an indelible mark on me! There were many inside the head. It looked more than likely that there was something that was going to be left on the outsides too. I realised my fortunes now, depended on the telugu film industry !

As the amazing stunts and the melodrama raged on TV, there was one going on outside my head. Oh yes, there was one that was going on inside it too. Do i ask him to switch off the TV or concentrate ? As i was mustering courage to stand up and express my fear, the hero on screen got a slash on his chest.

The snipping scissors went snip snip snip snip snip with great gusto and spee. Like a chopper whose pilot was finishing off some supposed tyrant with ruthless power from his fully loaded tyrannical weapons. My eyes darted between the heroine on screen and the eyes of ‘my man’ & his snipping scissor and my head.

The heroine let out a scream. The snipping scissors stopped there. The chopper seemed to hover atop my head like the pilot recalling that he left his front door open or something like that. I closed my eyes and prayed.

At that precise moment, the famous Indian power trick kicked in. This time, a power failure, and the TV went blank ! As though the rotor fan belt snapped ! It took a full minute for the tension in the room to die down. And then, it was snip, snip with long gaps. I was breathing easy.

It seemed to me that i was a TV journalist who had watched a close combat ! Sunday morning combat ! The power did not return for a long time. I thanked God & nature for small mercies, and thought, God had a way of pulling the plug of snipping scissors the world over. Perhaps there are one too many of them now !