Thursday, December 10, 2009

My 500LKR haircut

This incident took place on Monday. Although it is not that much of a significant incident I thought of writing a blogpost because of the funny nature of it. On Monday, I thought of getting a haircut. I was having a chat with my buddy Pandula before going to the Saloon. When I mentioned about the haircut, he asked "hey man, are you still going to that shitty place to get an haircut. You should increase your standard of living cos now that you are employed and ....." he went on preaching. In my defense this so called "shitty Saloon" was the one which I have been going to for the last 5 years after moving to Borella. Although it did not have many luxurious facilities, I could get a haircut+head massage for 140/= (including the 20/= tip).

After Pandula's comment I was a bit embarrassed and thought of going to a better Saloon. After going in I told the barber the way in which I need my hair to be trimmed. He did it. At the end of the haircut I asked the barber how much is for the haircut. He said 150/=. I thought "Somebody have to pay for these fancy lights and equipment" and said "ok cool". Then I told him to give me a head massage(a statement which I would regret later).

This bugger gave me a head massage for 20 minutes. Normally in my old place the barber would give it for 5 mins. I thought that this guy was having some short term memory loss in understanding time durations. After everything was done, I asked him how much for the haircut? He said 500/=. My first reaction was that I heard it wrong and I asked the same question again to get the same answer back. Then I asked "Damn.... you charged 350/= for a head massage?". Although I had 2000/= with me at that time; under any circumstance I would not pay for a haircut that much.

I told him "I am having 300/= with me right now and out of it I have to buy a dinner packet for 100/=. I can only give you 200/=." He had no other option but to accept my proposition. [IMO barber had another extreme option. He could have asked me to cut hair of the customers until he recovers my charge (just like people are asked to wash plates in "siwari", when they are unable to pay for the food that they have eaten :)). I guess he did not have faith in me - having a pair of scissors on my hand ]. Therefore I gave him 200/= and got myself out of that place. That was the last time that I would step on that place.

Ironically the Saloon's name was "Sayonara" :) meaning 'goodbye'. 'siy-oh-nah-rah' would be the best matching name that anybody could come up with, for a Saloon like that :D