That One Haircut

It was a warm Sunday evening in Bangalore on 3^rd Feb 2019. I was at my flat and wanted to get my haircut so I went to a salon nearby. When I entered the salon I saw a lady sitting on a chair, at the corner, near the entrance who I believe, was the owner of the salon. She appeared to be in her early thirties. There were some barbers who were grooming people and some were sitting on a sofa. I got a barber from the babble.

Everything was going smooth. I had almost got my haircut and the barber was giving the final improvements with a shaving razor, removing the small hair behind the ears and on the back of the neck. He had finished doing the right side and as he came on the left side, he tripped on the long wire of the dryer which was going into the socket, hitting the unfolded razor blade on my left ear with a jerk. I immediately felt some pain on my ear and also on my neck but I could not see where exactly the razor had hit and how deep the cut was, as my spectacles were kept on the front, on top of a table. All the barbers and the salon owner immediately huddled behind my chair forming a semicircle, with the owner standing on my left side. I took my left hand out of the apron to feel the cut but the owner had already started with the inspection. She pulled out the headrest, made me place my head over it, wiped off the blood with cotton and had put the alum on my ear and neck. She also called her husband and narrated the incident before him. After some cycles of blood wiping and alum rubbing, the husband came in his car.

The husband was sitting on the front seat with a guy who was in the driving seat, I and the wife were sitting on the back seat. The car started and after running for around 5 minutes, halted at a nearby clinic. We stepped inside the clinic. The doctor after gabbing with the lady, gave me an injection which I think was of tetanus. He cleaned the cut with an antiseptic and wrapped up my ear in cotton with an adhesive tape holding it onto the wound. They were still conversing but I could not really understand what they were talking about as they were talking in Kannada. However, I was able to catch a few words from their conversation. I think she was asking if stitches were required on the wound and the doctor replied no. The doctor also gave me some medicines and an ointment to apply to the wound. We came outside the clinic, sat in the car to go to my location. In the car, the lady asked me several questions – where I was from, how long I had been staying in Bangalore, with whom I was staying here, how far was the office location from my place.

They parked the car outside the society gate and stood outside of the car. The owner asked if he could accompany me to my room, to which I courtly said no. I entered the society gate, took the elevator and reached fifth floor. My flatmate opened the door and glanced at my ear dressing. He asked me what had happened as he knew that I went for a haircut. I recited the tale without pause.

At around 10:15 pm my phone ranged. It was the lady from the salon.

 Lady: "Sir, Did you have your dinner?"
 Me: "Yes". 
 Lady: "Did you make it by yourself?"
 Me: "No, actually we have a cook but she doesn't come on Sundays so we ordered from outside". 
Lady: "Okay, and have you taken your medicines?"
Me: "Yep, just a few minutes ago".
Lady: "Okay, take rest and I will pay you a visit tomorrow".
Me:  "Sure, good night".

At around 9 am in the morning she called again. She told me she was standing outside the society gate. When I reached the entrance gate I saw her with a polythene full of fruits. She asked if I had my breakfast. I told her I did. She then handed over the polythene to me. “It was really not needed”, I said. She said, “You are a good guy and did not say anything. You don’t know the mindset of people in this area. If it was somebody else he would have lodged an FIR in the police station against my husband for such incident. This is the reason, I have not opened a female parlor here. I know how the girls would take it, for a slightest mistake in the threading of the eyebrows they would just overreact”. “Oh Okay”, I said. “Sorry Sir”, she said sympathetically. “It’s okay it was just an accident”, I responded. “Sir, what’s your daily pay?”, she uttered after finding that I had taken off today. I, replying hastily, “It is totally fine, there’s no need of that.” It was a normal conversation until she said this, “Sir, you are not married yet and we have given u a scar”. (See I was fine when I saw the blood on cotton wipes, when she asked the doctor about the stitches but I was terrified when she said you are not married yet. I thought, how badly my ear was cut that it could lead to problems in my marriage 😅 Had my earlobe got detached from my ear or my ear was cut into two pieces, I now wanted to see it). I did not say anything but made a facial expression showing a bittersweet emotion. She then said, “Do you need help with the dressing?” I told her, “No, its fine, my flatmate is working from home today so he is going to help me with it”. “Okay, take care”, she said smiling. I, after a smile on my face, “Thank you for the fruits”. “Sir I will be bothering you with my phone calls to check on your health, would that be okay?”, she said while walking away from the gate. “Yeah, absolutely!”, I said. I ran upstairs to my flat. My flatmate was in the hall. He lifted his eyebrows after seeing the polythene. I told him about the conversation that happened between me and the lady. He laughed out loud. I then went to my room, stood in front of the mirror, partially took off the tape and scanned my ear and the neck, because until then I had not seen the cut. “Okay, I think there won’t be a problem in my marriage”, I said to myself laughing.

The series of calling me, checking on my health and asking if I had taken my food, continued for 3 days. After a few days I bumped into the couple in a marketplace located near my society. They were on a bike. They greeted me, looked at my left ear and asked about the wound. “Healed”, I said. The husband grievingly said , “You are a handsome man and we have given you a scar on your face for lifetime. We are really sorry about it”. I said (I was smiling though for being called handsome) , “Its okay, the scar may fade away and even if it doesn’t it’s not a big deal. I have got a bigger scar on my cheek and people rarely ask about it.” (which they may, after reading this blog :P)

This picture is for your reference. This is how my face looked on the first day after removing the bandage. Would you think that this cut could cause problems in finding a partner? 😛