What’s In a Place?
As promised, I was at her door at 11AM sharp. The place was clean. She asked me if I like my hair short or long. I answered. She gave her own expert opinions. After all, she was cutting hair for the past 13 years. She started working on my head….well, hair. By that time I had realized that she cannot stop talking at all. She told me wide variety stories from her childhood in Shanghai to her mother’s visit to America last year.
All of a sudden she stopped cutting my hair and asked me where I was originally from.
“India” shouted thy, without a blink.
“Ooooh, you don’t look like you are from India” was her immediate response.
At that point, I was convinced that she must have thought that I was one hot latin stud.
I asked the obvious next question. “So, where did you think I was from?”.
She instantly said “Pakistan”.
I was confused, shocked and clueless, to say the least. “Why?” I asked.
She smiled at me and said “Indians have their eyes flatter than yours. You have slightly rounded eyes”.
I did not have any answer for that. By that time she had resumed cutting my hair anyway. So, I closed my eyes to hide my emotions.
She then continued, “Are you sure your grand parents or great grand parents are not from Pakistan?”.
I was speechless!!!
Explore posts in the same categories: Home, Humor, Raindrops
A Paradise for Dreamers 
August 20, 2007 at 8:07 pm
DS,
This first reminded me Joshi’s article about the barber, where he called them chatter boxes.
http://thatskannada.oneindia.in/column/vichitranna/030505haircut.html
Also Tejaswi’s annana nenapu where he talks about the ksworika who used to do home service etc.,
and the concluding part of the post, I am speechless too.. BTW have you shaved off your mush recently or what ? ha ha… Guess you are atleast not part of hate list in orkut .
http://thatskannada.oneindia.in/sahitya/article/160807india-pak-war-on-orkut.html
and 13 years is quite long!! :-), do you bloghop Chitra’s R2I blog offlate ?
August 20, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Lol. Reminds me of the time that my friends & I would go to these restaurants in the US (TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, P.F.Chang’s).
One of our friends, N, is from Delhi and many times turned into the target of a similar dialog.
Here we would be, ordering beers, wine and (being desis) scotch. All these libations would be delivered without any comments.
Then N would order ribs or some other pork dish. Suddenly, this 18-year old waiter that has been cluelessly serving us alcohol without checking ID or credentials, would turn into Mr. or Ms.Global-Citizen and say, “that dish contains pork. Is that ok?”
What is funny is that N is not a Muslim, but used to look like Middle-Eastern, what with his muchhad and all.
What is ironic is that his grand-parents immigrated from Pakistan. So maybe your hair-dresser did cut my friend N’s hair, and knows what she is talking about…
August 20, 2007 at 8:45 pm
bhel puri:
are you a dressed up non-anonymous version of aram/joru’s gulam? 🙂
d.s.:
“So, I closed my eyes to hide my emotions.”
is that all you tried to hide when you closed those slightly rounded eyes of yours? 😉
– s.b.
August 20, 2007 at 8:51 pm
lol, so tell us D Stud – are you sure you don’t have some aryan blood in you ;-))
August 20, 2007 at 9:53 pm
s.b.:
how could you get so confused?
Bhelpuri and Sheekh Kabab are truly words so appetizing and tempting that a poor (in imagination) joroo kaa gulaam with a south indian veggie wife can only salivate and a haraam araam can only think of how to relish the delicacies without his wife’s knowledge.
August 20, 2007 at 10:00 pm
DS:
The next time you meet your chinese hajaam, tell her that Pakistan and India were really one country politically and geographically until 1947 and that even today the people of both countries have the same nature and temperament.
August 21, 2007 at 1:01 am
ds,
you must have told you’re from Mysore-Pak-istan. 😉
August 21, 2007 at 1:20 am
Bellur, ROFL..!
DS, this reminds me of people taking me to be a north indian, may be for the way I spoke, in Hindi, in English.
However, r u sure that none of ur grandparents are from Pakistan? 😉
August 21, 2007 at 2:27 am
So is she Chinese, Korena, Viet, Malay… 😉
August 21, 2007 at 2:28 am
I meant “Korean” – heh heh hehe
August 21, 2007 at 7:40 am
lol! That was really funny! People have spoken to me in Spanish with me responding “Huh?!” initially and “No español” depending on how ready I was! But I was never called Pakistani!
Must be probably because of all the Pak related news in the US media nowadays.
Especially with Pakistan recently labeled the most dangerous country in the world, and after seeing you as a dangerous guy, she put 2 and 2 together and made her conclusion. Don’t be surprised if you see a couple of people following you near Safeway!
Wonder where our Khuda Hafiz is nowadays! 😉
August 21, 2007 at 3:32 pm
@ Veena:
Yes, SJ comes up with real nice topics for his articles. As for my mush, you will find out when you meet me next time 😉 And no, I was never attracted to orkut, wordpress keeps me busy enough.
@ BPuriSKabab:
Welcome to my blog. I am convinced that my barber must have cut N’s hair at some point. Maybe I am N’s long lost twin 😉
@ SB:
Sucker, you do catch the right points, don’t you? Yes, I actually replaced some other word with “emotions” just before posting this.
@ Rads:
I have always believed that Caucasians and Brahmins have way too many thigns in common. does that help? 😉
@ Aram:
I really wanted to tell her that. But, I soon realized that it was probably not worth it. She wouldn’t have understood anyway.
@ RK:
LOL….I bet that would have taken care of my haircut.
@ Srik:
Hmmm…with so many people asking me, you knopw what…maybe I do have Pakistani roots after all 😉
@ Aparna:
Chinese, Ia ssume since she mentioned shanghai. I didn’t want to take a risk and ask her if she was originally from Taiwan or Tibet.
@ nilagriva:
Yep, I have managed to convince people that I am not a latino. But, this came from nowhere. How could I be dangerous, she was the one with a knife? 😉
I am sitting in my cube and laughing uncontrollably reading yoru comment on Khuda Hafiz. I wonder where he is. Still singing “rim jhim gire saawan” in the desert, you think? 😉
August 21, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Was this at the one in Sunnyvale downtown? LOL The young lady was very clever! 🙂
“She started working on my head….well, hair.”….Classic one! I am still smiling here! 🙂
August 22, 2007 at 3:32 am
yelli hair cut madiskondru ide problkemaa?
even the barber who is come home to haircut in our child hood
also use to make a full news with my father
whereever be there seems they are same
August 22, 2007 at 5:21 pm
@ Vittal:
LOL, pretty subtle, huh? Decent enough for this blog 😉 And, no not the one in Sunnyvale downtown.
@ Pranseshachar:
Yes, just like politicans and truck drivers, even barbers seem to be same all over the World 🙂
October 3, 2007 at 4:26 pm
[…] My barber just cannot stop talking. She beats me hands down. Remember what happened last time I met her? Just to be on the safer side, I took my wife with me on this […]