Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Sukoon in Banares

Inam ali on his shop was continuing hair cut of a customer, the shop just in front of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth gate (on Maldahiya to Englishia line road) remained in shattered state yet. There was nothing which could tell whether the shop was in great shape ever but the contentment on the face of Inam Ali was too pleasant to observe. He was lost in his own world while cutting hair, I remembered once a friend of mine said that the way he cuts the hair, he must have counted all his hairs. Who succeeded ever doing it ?

We have to wait because Inam Ali is busy with another customer and we watched into vicinity. Few old shops which has been successfully feeding around 150-200 Indian citizens, the citizens who have a government and the government pretend to think about poors....I was astonished suddenly to notice the rates for hair cuts which is @Rs 20/-, shaving @Rs 10/- This seemed too cheap when I compared it to the shops in Noida/Greater Noida who are minimum @Rs 40/- for hair cut and 20-25/- for shaving. The shop next to Inam Ali is a shop of bag repairing. He might have collected bags from the ragpickers as the bags which he had arranged in his shop looked dirty and torn from corners. Probably, some of them were good at some point of time but he couldn't sell it that time.

"Bhonsadi ke Chotu, chai ke bol ke aaw" Inam Ali had come out of his meditation and asked chotu who does all cleaning in the shop for tea. Then Inam Ali noticed us and shook his head "Sahab, mangavayen kya, aap bhi le lijiye". we noded in no politely and asked Inam Ali, how much time he would take for our turn. He gave us assurance of 5-10 minutes and then went into his meditation (cutting hair)....one side of hairs of customer were still to be cut and cleaned. There was a small TV hanging from the wall, Inam Alit asked the other worker to start it. There was a news channel showing propaganda of Congress govt. It was something to do with "Bharat Nirman". Then, there was a well dressed lady on the news channel who started reading news.

Inam Ali suddenly was vocal...."सब एक्के हैँ। कुछे दिन पाहिले एक मौगा कांग्रेसी था, ससुरा कहने को सांसद बन गया लेकिन कुच्छो नहीं किया और अब इ मुरली जोशी रहेँ। ।कुछ नहीं किया बनारस के लिए।  अब देखे के हौ , मोदी जी का करेँगे "

Modi ji got elected....he is now Prime minister and yet there is nothing on ground in Varanasi. My recent visits to Varanasi confirms this...whenever Modi ji comes Benares, there's hope building up. My next planned trip in December 2014, I'm hoping to see some changes.
 

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