Darn !! It is Just some Hair Sticking from your Upper Lip !!

“Sir, what would be like to do? “ Asked the barber rather sweetly and anticipated as I sat on the chair.

Snip it all out, leaves enough to be not called a Tiurpati Tripper.

Aha ....that seemed to light the devil in him.

Spray…… spray ………spray...he gets my hair wet... .Takes a comb and drags it with a vengeance imprisoning it, struggles a bit when he reaches the back of my head..Giving up he then takes out a broader comb and pulls it back, satisfied.

Once all the strands are slicked back...he begins.....

Snip ….. Snip…… snip…… snip.

In 2 minutes it was over, he then says..." sir might I make a suggestion?”

Sure...

“Sir Keep a moustache”, and then he adds which loosely translated from Tamil, means “A man's respect is by his moustache"(a very specific saying in Tamil, I don’t know its meaning, and that’s a pity)\).Aha that possibly could explain why middle aged, mustached uncles dance with absolutely pretty damsels, half their age.

Sure!!

Now it takes thirty minutes, not two!! Thirty minutes of meticulous snipping of stray hairs on my face, after which, Anna takes an admiring look at his handiwork.

I thank him and walk out, it’s almost 1.30, not enough time to go and cook, so I head out to Udipi.

As I cut out a bill, the man kind of recognizes me, and says, "haircut??” I nodded, and he says "Which place, do you come from sir (referring to my native land,Again in Tamil).I wanted to say Noida but said Thanjavur.

Vadagali/Tengalai, he said dispensing off with obvious need to determine my lineage, the moustache had made things pretty obvious and also added a good five years (not that I needed any!!)

I don’t know what it means, but for good measure I said "Vadagali".

Nodding his head as though he was sure of my response, he hands my counterfoil and I sit down with a mound of rice to devour. Travelling around India, I could discern one thing that despite the decades that have passed by, the caste of a person seems to be a very interesting piece of information for locals everywhere. But in Chennai this tendency is very…very pronounced, much evident by our recent house searching, where I did all the talking, because my Tamil is weird!!