Who cares for you in the city?

Living in the city is hectic, everyone is in a rush to make a little more money, spend a little more time with family and friends, find a better house or exercise a little. In all this chaos all of us have little time to care for people around us, as we barely get by caring for our immediate family and friends. But once in a while you find such a person in the most surprising of places or situations. I found one such person who went way beyond his call of duty to care for my well being. My barber.

I go to a local barber where I shave my head (yes I shave my head of the little hair that grudgingly grows on my head), shave my stubble and get a head massage with the cooling red 'navratna' oil. For all of this I pay ninety rupees!

And I don't particularly care who shaves me, how choosy can one want to be when all wants is to take off all the hair on ones head and off ones face. But often there is there is this young guy (all of them are young guys incidentally) who does the needful very well without attempting to strike up a conversation. I hate it when the person who should be focusing on the blade that is dancing all over my scalp or my face or my throat wants to talk or watch the television in the background.

But the other day he surprised me. After having finished shaving my stubble clean he said with utmost earnestly 'You are becoming darker.' I almost fell off my chair. Now for all of those who know me, know that I am already dark. And neither do I nor do the people I am associated with care two hoots about skin color. But obviously my barber did.

Now I was completely lost for words and all I managed to do was grin sheepishly and shrug my shoulders. My barber took that as a sign and got to work. He asked me to sit back and relax and quickly lathered up my face with soap and warm water. After getting that off my face he dropped a tablespoon of some pink colored cream and vigorously massaged that into my face. Then he wiped all of that gook with a warm towel and then he was back with soap and water.

After all that scrubbing, to his delight and my embarrassment my face was two shades lighter. I wanted to run from that place. But before I could he said 'Do get a facial once a month. It shall remove all your dead skin and exfoliate it.'

Now that is definitely caring!