Once upon a time, hair and beards were cut and shaved sitting on straws in the open market of villages and towns. Today, with the touch of modernity, that scene is no longer visible.
Which is now on the way to extinction. However, Lakshan Chandra Sheel (72) and Balay Chandra Sheel (70) have kept the tradition of Grameen. And they spent almost 50 years of their life sitting on the pavement of the market. They cut the hair and beards of the locals by sitting on the sidewalk of Shashibhushan (Letra) market of Charfassion Upazila of Bhola. whose income somehow runs their family.
People of different ages came to them. For this work Lakshan Chandra Sheel and Balay Chandra Sheel have to say the necessary items; Comb, cloth, small mirror, razor, scissors and a tool/tweezers.
Both of them are residents of Ewajpur Union of Upazila. Narsundar Balay Chandra Sheel said that earlier people used to cut and shave their hair and beards under the open sky.
Keeping that tradition, for the last 50 years, he went to different markets and cut people’s hair by sitting on straws on the pavement. Shave too. During the change of time, now the price of hair cutting has become 30 taka and the price of beard cutting has become 20 taka. After spending fifty years in this profession, the picture of the market has changed but they are still working as before. And their 6-member family lives with the money earned from this work.
Balay Chandra Sheel has two sons and one daughter in his family, two sons are in his profession and the daughter is also married. But his sons work in a salon, not on the sidewalk.
Another Narasundar Lakshan Chandra Sheel said, people of different age groups come to us. Some give 20 taka, others 40 taka for cutting and shaving their hair and beard. By doing this, we get an income of 150 to 200 taka per haat. And with this income, our family runs somehow. I have three sons in my family.
In response to a question like whether they want to cut hair and beards in a salon in keeping with the times, they said, “It’s not possible to work sitting in a stilt, now it’s not possible!” We want to end our life by working like this for the remaining days of our life.
Some people who came to Narsundar Lakshan Chandra Sheel and Balay Chandra Sheel for hair cutting and shaving said that they can cut hair and beard at a low price. They also charge less for shaving. That’s why I come to them. If you go to the salons in the market, you have to pay one to one and a half hundred rupees for hair and beard cutting and shaving.
Khorshed Alam Bepari, who came to Balay Chandra Sheel to cut hair and shave, said that even if they cut hair and beard sitting on the sidewalk, they do it beautifully. In the evolution of time, these are no longer commonly seen.
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