The mobile phone on the table shrieked at the top of its voice. The device was sat at the loudest mode of its ring tone so that when it rings she can hear it from the other end of her house. By the time the phone rang, she was in her bed and tried to drag her off from there to receive the call. She plodded under the heavy weight of her clothes; a heavy faded coat with a number of light weight clothes worn under it to ward off the cold which chilled both the animate and inanimate things around her. Before the phone rang, she was scowling and was running her fingers through her cropped and disheveled hair from time to time as she leaned against the headboard of her bed. Some thoughts went wild inside of her and that she had no one to share with at her home.  Hence, when the phone rang, it worked magic to cheer her up and her face lit dispelling the mist of moroseness from it instantly. It was her daughter who called her at her usual time at 7:00 PM in the evening.

          The old woman in her late sixties lived in one BHK flat on the fifth floor of her building with multi- storey buildings all around the house, which often resulted in network crisis inside her home  disconnecting  the calls in the midst of communication for several times that she received or made. Therefore, to talk to her daughter without any interruption, she dared the cold outside to select a niche in her open balcony.  There she stood with her fortitude against the sharp cutting edge of the cold and unburdened her heart to her daughter of all the thoughts that left her distraught for so long. Both the mother and the daughter exchanged their words and her daughter’s voice could be heard from the other end once, “It was all because of your own self.  I asked you several times not to visit her but you never listened to me. Now what else is left is that you visit her once again. Have a massage from her so that she will earn some money and in return you will break some of your bones”. 

       After talking to her daughter for nearly half an hour, the old woman returned to her bed, stretched under the quilt to warm her up and drowned herself in the pool of her thoughts once again. She remembered- it was in the month of October in the year, 2022 that she went to the bank to update her bank account. There, she met with a young lady in her thirties whom she found to be very cordial. After exchanging pleasantries with the lady, she came to know that the lady lived in the same street where she also lived.  The lady’s house was very close to hers. The information that she culled from the lady revealed that the latter worked in a bank and after the pandemic took over the world, she continued working from home for the same organization. But as the days advanced reeling under the pandemic and the situation worsened, the bank could not retain all of its employees due to the loss that it incurred. By misfortune, she was one of the employees who were sacked by the bank. After losing her job, the lady tried her hand at a different venture. She had done a course on that of a beautician and worked in a beauty salon too before joining the bank. Hence, after losing her job, she opened a salon in her house to give beauty treatments to the ladies. The lady invited the old woman to her salon if she needed any treatment like body massage or haircut. After coming to know about the new enterprise of the lady, the old woman decided instantly to add the lady to her list of people whose services she used to hire.

          During the time of the pandemic, the old woman thanked her lord for several times because she faced no financial crisis. She was a retired primary school teacher and she lived on her pension that she received every month on a regular basis. She felt for all those people who lost their jobs and faced hardships of various sorts especially financial crunch. Her capacity to empathize with others made her resolve at that time, “I would look for all those people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic and are trying their hands at new ventures. Whenever I need any service, I will hire theirs”. She was then very happy to find the lady who opened the beauty salon and decided to hire her service too.

           Since, pain sneaked in different parts of her body taking advantage of her old age, the old woman just selected a few indispensable tasks of her day that she managed to finish laboriously by 12:00 PM. She then took her bath and shampooed her hair nicely. When she combed her hair she felt elated. She talked to herself, “Almost after a year, I am going to have haircut in a beauty salon.  I will visit her; she will cut my hair and in return she will earn something”.  After drying her hair, she changed her clothes and went out. The noble mission, on which she went out, energized her. She felt warmth inside of her and was not bothered about the biting cold outside. She walked along the road and said, “It is just a few steps that I have to take from my house to reach her salon. Whenever, I need haircut, I will visit her; I should also play a role in promoting her new business”.  With that thought the old woman took some bold steps towards the salon. When the lady opened the door of her salon, the old woman entered with a broad smile impressed on her chubby and wrinkled face with bulging bags under her eyes.  

          The lady collected her equipment – the pair of scissors, pins and the comb. One apron she also brought out of her cupboard and tried to put it on the old woman. The apron was an undersized one that the old woman tried to adjust on her body so that the pieces of hair would not get under her garment because she already finished taking her bath. That discomfort with the apron, the old woman tried to tolerate thinking, “It is the haircut that matters, other things, I will try to adjust to or ignore”.  Once, the lady started cutting her hair, her hands faltered, that the old woman could feel. She thought for a moment, “Does she really know to cut hair? Is she really trained in a beautician’s course? Did she really take hands- on training in a beauty salon or has she gathered knowledge of a beautician just watching YouTubes? ”. But the old woman tried to divert herself from that direction of her consciousness terming those thoughts as mere qualms that she developed the habit to indulge in leading a lonely life, according to her. She then closed her eyes and tried to enjoy the cutting of her hair. The lady took a too long span of time to give a complete shape to the haircut. Once it was completed, the old woman opened her eyes to see her in the mirror.  She was shocked to see her image, it was the worst haircut that she ever had in her life. But she tried to overcome her shock thinking that her hair would grow longer after a few days and she would then have a nice haircut. But the amount that she had to pay for the haircut actually left her staggered because that exceeded the amount that her daughter paid for her haircut in a very classy salon when she visited home a few days back.  She then found truth in her daughter’s words that the latter used to warn her mother with as well as could find its relevance to the context that she was placed into at the salon. She thought it was her daughter’s prudence that made her say, “Before taking services from such people, think for a couple of times. They may do anything, for which they may not have any proper knowledge, just to earn some money because they have lost their jobs. You must keep yourself wary of such forms of treachery. There is no harm in trying one’s hand at a new venture but to do the things sincerely you should equip yourself with proper knowledge”. The old woman returned home with drooping spirit and heavy footsteps from the salon after paying the charge for haircut.  

         The old woman tried to pull up the quilt to cover her body completely because she was feeling cold. She thought, “My hair will grow longer but will her ethics grow that she has shaved off for the sake of money? Yes, I should not visit her any more. My daughter rightly said that I would break my bone if I take massage from her that I thought once of taking from her due to my back pain”. 

………… Dr. Fathema Begum