Sunday 23 November 2008

cinderella man

we were a motley crowd of some young and the not- so - young women gathered in a small hall one sunday morning. staying in a small town has its pros and cons. one of the latter being that u r truly trichologically challenged.i dont know abt u guys - prob 4 u, a haircut is a haircut ( we r talking here of the ave dude who is not so metrosexual, not my nephew who wants 2 dye his locks purple) but i know that women agonise abt their hair- will the stylist give me a gud cut? will she chop off too much? all sorts of horrendous scenarios pop up in the gud ole imagination, till u r almost afraid 2 look at the end result in the mirror. so it was an experiment 2 say the lest- a guy was coming down from pune 4 a workshop- cutting hair and he needed models. all of us who bravely volunteered were small town women with small town hair styles - mostly well oiled scraggly hairdos. of course we had seen makeovers on tv- remember those shows where plain janes like us were, with seemingly the sweep of a wand, transformed into lovely ladies u would love 2 take out 4 romantic dinners under the stars. as so there was hope and not a little trepidation in our herts- would we emerge transformed like butterflies or crawl out like caterpillars with shorn pates and weird hairdos? the man wielding those scissors and comb was notorious 4 his eccentricity. my hair is a mass off the original medusa so i thought 2 myself that i dont have much 2 lose - will go ard looking more medusa like if the style backfires!
the meele started and we were seated on swivelling chairs on a stage facing a crowd of hopefuls wanting 2 learn the art (?science) of haircutting. heads were shampooed vigorously, locks snipped, scrunched, scrimped straightened, streaked with wonderful colors coming out of fantastic tubes. there being no mirrors ard, we were clueless abt the shenanigans and their result. after an hour or so , came the moment of truth as our hair was finally set and the plastic covers came off. we could now look at the much awaited yet dreaded results.
and the man had not disappointed any of us - we were truly made over. truly this mans fingers had magic in them - he was consummate master of his art. he had worked fast and extremely well - each of us was transformed - he had cut hair 2 suit each ones style and face. no longer were we dowdy, drab small town women - give us a lick of make-up, add new clothes and we could merge in with svelte socialites, or emerge on page 3 as the nouveau trichilicious! mousy mitali aws now a sleekly bobbed sophisticate, simple sangita a clone for a famous movie star and wonder of wonders my unruly mop was finally disciplined - cut crazy asymmetrical but working wonders 4 my face and my ego. our fairy godfather had come thru 4 us with the goods!
however this fairy tale does not have a happy ending. sometime ago i read in the papers that jasbir arora, our cinderella man was in lockup after having duped someone of 50,000 ( 4 a workshop or training programme and not delivering the goods). today we mourn 4 him - where did u slip up jasbir? we know u r bad at finances, but we also know u can make a comeback. get a gud finance manager, stop duping salon owners and just do what u r truly gr8 at - being CINDERELLA MAN, transforming us plain ellas. there will soon b a crowd beating down ur door.

5 comments:

Faiyaz said...

Alps your article on Sunder ella was Ati Sunder!
Baal Kaisa hain Janaab ka?
Haal kaisa hain Jasbir Ka?

arun bhatt said...

Done!! The comeback story of Jasbir will start from our re-union. He will be our special invitee and give all the ladies a special hair cut.

Being a barber by profession i hope he will not commit the same mistake bar-bar

Jokes apart i see the makings of a writer who is willing to do justice to her skills. Keep it up REGULARLY.

arun bhatt said...

by the way aap sangli waley baal baal bach gaye us fraud sey!!

Nargis said...

Once Habib had come and given a demonstration for my dotter in NIFT. And she went and not only cut off her beautiful hair but also got it permed. And JUST becos it was free. I was so upset. MOre so because Mr. Habib turned out to be the opposite of Cinderella Man...Three of her friends and she came out looking like Ugly Betty :-{

Vimal Parmar said...

You know why free samples are doled out now and then? Just to get in more customers! So beware... I am sure, for every haircut Alp will now find herself in Pune!
BTW, how about posting a photu, AppuTai?