Second year of college, during our college fest. The college sports ground is transformed into a carnival of sorts. Live bands, food stalls. And one stall from the famous barbershop X. (this isn't even some protection of privacy, I have forgotten the name. But they're the one who give you 400 rupee haircuts)
So X has a promotional offer. Haircuts for a hundred bucks. Quick calculation in head: getting hair cut in front of half the campus vs spending four times the money on a haircut plus rickshaw fare. For any hostel resident the answer is obvious.
So I plonk down in the chair and untie my braided hair. "I live in the hostel. I plan to not shampoo all winter, cut off ALL MY HAIR please. Thanks." The man gulps. The fest was in december I think, which left a good two months of winter to go.
Now when I said the answer was obvious to any hostel resident, what I meant was to ALL hostel residents. So within an hour of me getting that haircut, Dev showed up. She has waist length hair.... which she is too lazy too comb. So the man had a terrible time even getting to the haircut part. "I live in the hostel...shortage of water.... mysterious disappearance of combs from my room."
Then Ishrat turns up. She too has waistlength hair. Curly too. He asks her what shampoo she uses. She looks at him. "See I live in a hostel. So I just ask my friends for shampoo and use whatever they lend me."
Then the Don turns up. "I bought a giant bottle of shampoo for just eighty rupees. Such a bargain!!"
From the next year the barbershop was conspicuous in its absence. And sorely missed by a group of six people who still shared that bargain shampoo.
