(Note – In this series with sub-heading “Sketch of,” each contribution of written contents with a separate main heading, is supposed to be complete in itself. Though, if read one after another or randomly, then it would give an impression of a long story strung into a thread. This effort is given to make reader enjoy every part by itself.)
In every community some people make their presence by their own weird characteristic. This characteristic may be ostensible either in their demeanor or in appearance or in both. Not necessarily, such kind of people are supposed to be of some standing or genteel out look. Often, they are general folks either, but remain distinct in the eye of a person endowed with a god gift of “keen observation.” Even, these people take themselves as a quite common and humble one. Such a sort of character was Sohana barber of my village.
Traditional structure
In those bygone days of later half of the sixth decade of last century and onward, prevalence of old traditions and norms were observed as heirloom of community, they inherited from forefathers. At that time circulation of money was scarce and in village life, the means of exchange was mainly “barter system.” In that system, goods were exchanged in lieu of goods as well as service rendered by some one to another. In every village, to serve the local needs of people, barber, blacksmith, carpenter etc permanently inhabited every village as a denizen of the village community. All had their own distinct services to offer as per the requirement of the village.
Barber’s appearance
As it commits to my memory of childhood, when I was a lad of about nine or ten years of age, from that period, I ably recollect “Sohana barber’s sketch.” He was lanky and lean with an elongated and somewhat emaciated face. On his face, lines of worries permanently rested. Half grown disorderly mixed shaded beard often I found on his face. Even, his head remained thatched with disheveled hair. Might be, though being a barber, but could not give a hair cut to himself. I can remember him clad in Indian Pajama and shirt, in feet, putting on cheap tyre’s sole sandal of blackish hue.
His permanent image conjured in mind is of , roaming in lanes of village with his tool kit. A small box, with a handle on the top of it, to hold it in hand. If not roaming, then he was found gleaning fodder for his domestic cattle in the field of some farmer. As per the tradition of village community, in exchange if his services, he was offered grains on the harvest of every seasonal crop. Every family in the community was bound to pay as such, to make him sustain the livelihood. Yes! The quantity of ‘grains’ depended upon the number of “heads” of family subjected to his “hair- cutting services.” He too was permitted to glean the green fodder in a ‘ limited stock’ from the field of every land holder. Since, the village was of moderate size, this made him sustain his livelihood conveniently.
Uniquely, in that old time of late sixty of last century, no any terminology like “family – planning” existed in our country side. Truly say, it had its propagation in Urban area only and that too in an initial stage. Even, Urban men too were not inclined to adopt the means of family planning. The marital status of Sohna barber at that time, when I chanced to known about him, had been at least thirty years old.The so called abode of Sohana barber, in the name of house had its location just adjacent to the residence of my one paternal aunt. Sohana’s house was a roughly built big hut, it contained some rooms. A part of that, temporarily roofed with corrugated tin- sheets, rest part of it thatched with sheaves of dry grass.
Barber brought in the village
My uncle ( the husband of my aunt) at that time was “Village head man.” I had heard that long back Sohana along with his newly wedded wife was taken into the village by forefathers of my “village headmen uncle.” That was the time, when big land holders, easily donated some piece of land to such artisan, to provide him a shelter. He was gifted some land in the neighborhood of the family. Probably reason was, in an old typed “cast ridden society”, the norms of untouchability were practiced stringently. The barber were taken at some upper wring of the cast ladder and were out of that disgrace. So his young wife could be a good helping hand to women folk of the “head man family.”
Social status of barber
from the commencement of the Hindu social system, barber’s status has been of a somewhat little more reputation, without considering his financial status. In social spectrum, he worked as a social messenger on auspicious occasions. In all, he is installed above all other artisans of village in repute. As I told earlier, Sohana’s house situated adjacent to the house of my aunt. In a way both the families shared a common lane. As far as my memory works, when I was about ten years old, Sohana was reaching into his fifty years of age. It seemed he carried two jobs simultaneously. First was his vocational, the hair-cutting and another was to toil hard in looking after his house- hold affairs. His this house-hold affairs significantly included to produce children consecutively.
His wife too proven ” fertile” in this regard. At that time his eldest son was about twenty-five years old and worked as “helper cum cleaner” in a truck of some private transport company. The youngest child of his was a toddler. Among the youths of village, a joke majorly circulated; missus of barber was destined to remain “womb with child” in every season. How many children barber owned, I knew not. But on one occasion, when at evening time I visited the house of aunt, I noticed a crowd of children of different age, installed on a cot in the yard of barber. All they creating a gamboling din, tightly packed on the cot. Noticing this, I had asked aunt, ” whether all these children been gathered here from neighborhood to enjoy the prank?”
Upon that, aunt responded, ” Oh no… no ! All these brats are of barber. The other elder one are busy inside the kitchen in preparation of evening meal.” It was a great surprise to me and I think reader too has to be astonished by this fact. After a long, I came to know, he fathered seventeen children, apart from the fact, some children too had died during the birth process. In my life, whenever the memoirs of Sohana barber flashed into my mind, the sight of ” cot full with children” certainly reeled before my eyes. In fact, the interest in Sohana’s person generated into my mind, because of his eldest son. As told earlier he was “helper cum cleaner” at some truck.
Barber’s eldest son
Whenever, his this son visited back village fortnightly, during his stay in the village, in the dark of the evening he would gather other youth of village, in the verandah of the primary school of the primary school. There he was given to boast about his experiences of long journey and places explored on the truck. In that gathering, he would narrate sordid, sexy and dirty stories of brothels of big cities. In those stories, often he focused himself as a main player. Though all youths knew, he was boasting the false stories. But the allurement of sensuous anecdotes kept them riveted.
The children like me were kept at a bamboo’s distance from these gatherings. It was against the ethics of the village to pollute the mentality of children. But we too were stubborn and curious on our side. Taking the advantage of darkness of evening, we like a curious cat kept on creeping slowly near the point, from where story could filter into our ears. With an intent we grasped those stories as the first lesson of sex education of our life. At that time, Sohana’s eldest son made an impression in my mind, as if, he was some “wonder boy.” This impression persuaded me to take interest into Sohana’ person.
Children scared of Barber
I clearly remember, all brats of village not only feared the barber even abhorred him. The answer to this abhorrence lied in the excruciating drive of his hair cutting. That was an old time and Sohana barber used to cut our hair with his an old fashioned, obsolete cutting machine. The same machine which is used nowadays in hair salon with electricity. At that time, it were used as a hand operated device. The barber was in the habit not to maintain the sharpness of his tools. His hair cutting machine worked devilishly. It worked in the way, it used to cut hair less but uprooted more the scalp. It was like undergoing torture of Nazi concentration camp. The present generation hardly can imagine about that torture.
After giving the hair cut, he would give sharpness to his old-fashioned razor, by rubbing it on a leather-strop, firstly on this side then on that side. Despite all this effort, the edge of the razor gave the pain, as if, a sand paper was being rubbed on the side skin of our head. The experience of hair cutting was so excruciating, we always took him like a Jallad ( executioner.) We all knew that on Sunday, he was asked by parents to give hair cut to children. On that day, we all children ever remained on high alert. To save our skin, some boys climb on some tree. By installing there, they regularly keep a vigilant eyes in every direction.
On finding barber moving towards our locality, our horde flee from the spot and take a long run.Often we used to sneak to other village and come back when evening began to fall down. Often months passed on without hair cut and our head began to look like bee-hive. We all looked like little demon. Tired by our this fleeing drive, eventually our parent took recourse to our school teacher in the school by registering a complain. There we were but to undergo a sever thrashing, enough to make us surrender our head under the hair cut machine of Sohana barber.
The sorrowful demise of barber
The harsh atrocity took place with Sohana barber in the year of 1975 onward. In that year, in the Congress led regime, Emergency got imposed. Along with, a rigid drive to implement family planning got launched at Nation wide scale. The entire government machinery were forced to accomplish the quota of vasectomy and in that drive horrific news of capturing men and operating the genital organs were floated in common. This kind of news was like an earth quake to Sohana barber. Since rumor floated that after vasectomy, man was doomed to become impotent. The only recreation in the life of Sohana barber was now in peril. He at once approached my “Village headman” uncle. To him, he was the personification of Sarkar (Government.).
From somewhere, Sohana barber too heard that in neighboring country China, the government there encouraged people to produce more and more children. Loaded with this information, he came to uncle and threatened him, “Either I should be spared from this family planning drive, otherwise I will migrate to China leaving behind all my children. Now you will have to look after and nourish them.” What could be done by my uncle on this issue, he too was a petty part of the electoral system only. He tried to persuade him not to be so frustrated rather should try not to be captured in the net of hunting machinery.
For many days to come, Sohana barber took shelter in distant cane fields and reserve forest to avoid his capture. Certainly, he succeeded in avoiding the government machinery, but it took hard on his health. He developed ailment of tuberculosis (TB) by going through the stress. At that time, TB was a dangerous illness and no common cure was available. Merely declaration of diagnosis of TB was enough for patient to send him to his last journey. Such a malady it was and Sohana barber died of that too . Penned by — Vinay Pharasi …..
