March 08, 2009

Glibness of tongue may be a good quality for salesmen to push their sales, chattiness for well-off women to pass idle moments that hang heavy on their hands, gift of gab for the selfish politicians to grab votes from gullible masses, but garrulity is perhaps an essential part of the life of hairdressers, auto rickshaw and taxi drivers.

As you enter a hairdresser's saloon, you are customarily welcomed to take a seat. If it is a rush hour, you may pick a daily or an old issue of a glossy magazine with pictures of bathing beauties to feast your eyes on. When your turn comes, you are asked if you want a shave or a hair cut. Work begins in silence, but after a couple of minutes, the ice is broken by the hairdresser at your service.

The music from the stereo is made louder as if it is specifically for your benefit. Cricket or hockey match commentary blares from the TV fixed on the wall, which the hair dresser furtively glances at from time to time, doubled up with his own commentary, in the hope that you might also join him.

Subjects like the country's current political conditions, unabated load shedding, rising costs of food, utilities, education, health care, inefficiency of law and order and all that you can imagine is profusely discussed one after the other. He chatters like a grass hopper jumping from one topic to another.

A head massage follows unless you beg to be excused from this unsolicited favour. The hair dresser proudly shows you the back of your head by placing a mirror behind to assure that your hair has been cut as per your specific requirements. If you are turning gray, you are promptly advised to use hair colour. Word of caution is given for which brand of hair to use and which to avoid, as it is known to cause cancer in many of his clients. You are also advised to use a specific 'shampoo' to get rid of dandruff along with a herbal cure for your eczema which he has spotted at the back of your head during the hair cut.

Like hair dressers, some taxi drivers are also equally garrulous and hard to put up with. Once they start their chit chat, it goes on uninterrupted until you reach your destination. During their talk they freely punctuate it with some English words, heard or learnt by them from their passengers just to impress you. The copy of the daily newspaper they keep for their own reading is passed on to you for glancing through, if you care.

The pitch of the music coming from their radio is turned louder, whether you like it or not. If a cricket or a hockey match commentary is being broadcast, you do not have to wait long for the result, as it is promptly predicted, whether Pakistan has bright chances of winning or not.

Other topics, that are touched upon briefly are national and international politics, terrorism, bomb blasts and long marches, all dragged into the rambling monologue. In the holy month of Ramzan, the sanctity of fasting and other violations of the holy month are re-emphasised for your kind information.

 

When your turn comes, you are asked if you want a shave or a hair cut. Work begins in silence, but after a couple of minutes, the ice is broken by the hairdresser at your service.

 

Some drivers narrate their feats of driving and how they once dodged the police seargent for crossing the red signal? If you are looking for a 'faith healer', you are offered the address of a certain 'sain baba', whose 'talisman' as his own experience has proved, benefited hundreds of the disturbed souls. The 'sain baba' gives his blessings, especially on every Thursday to his devotees. “Look here, I am also wearing his amulet for bringing me good luck.”

If you are fond of tourism, you need not took for a tourist guide. Your taxi driver can tell you where to go in Karachi such as the Quaid’s mausoleum, Sultan Masjid in the Defence Housing Society, the architecture of which is no less than a wonder, as the entire roof of the magestic mosque rests without pillar support, 'Bohri Bazaar' if your family is. fond of shopping, Clifton beach, if there is no time for Hawkesbay.

For eating out, you are informed about nehari, paaya, sajji, katakat, haleem, fried fish and other oriental mouth watering delicacies which are not only affordable, but more delicious than anywhere else in the city.

The other day, I happened to take a taxi from the center of the city, after a little haggling about the fare, which is a must as taxis in Karachi now ply without fare meters, and you have to go to your destination on mutually agreed fare.

The jolly youngish driver began that he has driven taxi in a Gulf State for about 15 years, but for a lapse on his part, he was jailed, fined and has been repatriated. “Sir, driving in a city like Karachi, reputed to be an international city, is not as orderly as it could be. Private cars and public transport are choking roads despite their expansion.

The ‘yellow devils’ meaning wagons are more menacing than public buses, trucks and heavy vehicles that are the killers on roads. Ladies are careful in driving but the impish scooterists and the young brats of affluent people are a great nuisance in safe driving. Spoilt children are given posh cars to drive on roads and they cause serious accidents but go scot. There is no punishment for the rich, but we the poor taxi drivers are held by the police for the slightest offence.”

I asked him how about driving without fare meters? He was quick to reply, “People have lost faith in our fare meters, as they have lost faith in our present government. So what is the use of a fare meter.

It is not there to decorate a taxi. In Pakistan, the police is so kind that if you bring even a rickety taxi from junkyard, you get its fitness certificate after a little greasing of the palm. What about ‘roti, kapra and makaan?’

Is it possible for the government to provide us basic needs without any foreign investment or further industrialisation to absorb the unemployed and how about the political stability in the country? With these problems, how can people get jobs and live in peace?” He was about to initiate another topic as we approached my destination. Barbers and taxi drivers cannot work or drive in silence. Perhaps as this is a way to refresh themselves from their arduous, monotonous work and fatigue.