So its our last day here in Ongole and we will be taking a
30 hour train ride to Delhi for our final debrief of the 11 months. Before I left Ongole I wanted to “pretty”
myself up and get a good shave so I decided that I wanted to go to a barber for
I have never gone to a barber before for a shave. Side note all men where
mustaches here so I figured what I wanted wouldn’t be a problem. So I took my friend Abraham who was our
translator all month to go the barber with me. We walked down the street for about 10 mins and found the perfect
barber. It was right along the street,
only one chair in his little shack with a view to the outside so I could see
what was happening in the street as I got a shave. I told my barber what I wanted and he didn’t
seem to have any problems so he ushered me to my thrown.
I sat down and he through a towel over me and
then proceeded to spray my face with water and clean my face before he
started. After the little shower he took
an abundant amount of cream and smoothly lathered my face and then proceeded
with his straight razor to give my face a trimming. Upon finishing, he cleaned my face and I
thought all was good and was ready to leave. OH NO! that was just round one. He then again lathered my face again and did the same routine but
getting an even closer shave. He finished
again and wiped my face off and once again I thought all was good. He then sprayed my face with some after shave
and then again with water and then took out a little container that had lotion
in it and started to smear my face with the lotion and giving me a nice smooth
look.
At this time I was feeling a bit pampered for
the first time in a while, not a bad gig. He then took some towels and dried my face off and then prepared his
scissors. He wanted to trim the stray
hairs of my mustache and then not only that but took the scissors up my nose
and got those pesty nose hairs that always seem hard to pull. I was thoroughly impressed with the service I
got on a little roadside barber. Now
came the time to pay and I was willing to shell out some big bucks not because
it was such a great job but because I’m an American and well people like to
take advantage of that, so in my head I was already thinking prices. I asked Abraham to ask how much it would be
and the man said 20, and at first I didn’t understand him but he repeated
himself again and said 20, but he wasn’t talking about dollars he was talking
Indian rupees and a quick estimated exchange rate is 45 rupees to 1 US dollar,
so that’s less than 50 cents for a 20 minutes of a smooth shave, face massage
and nose hair trim.
