Two months later, he returned to his native village in Rautahat to attend his elder brother’s marriage and then moved to Narayangadh, where he helped another elder brother with blades and scissors for about a fortnight before packing off to leave for Kathmandu. [break]
While in Narayangadh, Pyare Mohan picked up a little Nepali that he speaks and now helps his married brother in a haircutting saloon at Kundan Hair Dresser in Purano Baneshwar.
Pyare Mohan first picked up the tools of the trade in Udosha Tole in Rautahat when he was 10 years old. His father Raghu Nath Thakur who also runs a barbershop taught him the tricks and Pyare Mohan has loved it since then.
Weird for a boy his age, Pyare is currently taking some time off school, or at least that is what he says, and is working with his sibling while many his age loose themselves in their childhood innocence.
And so much for his innocence, Pyare maintains a bank account, flirts with girls who pass by his workplace, chews paan like his elder peers, drinks a little liquor once a month and plans to sport Rajesh Hamal’s hairdo.
“I am currently taking some time off from studies. This Holi, I will go back to village, consume a little bhang and will resume my grade nine studies and will be back in the capital again,” Pyare says. The paan-reddened saliva reddens his outer lips. A nearby tea-shop owner comments, “This Pyare, he consumes everything.”
It is not easily understood, the life of a teenager and more so of Pyare Mohan Kumar. Many things he says get lost in translation because he does not speak good Hindi, forget Nepali. Judging the family’s hairdressing business in the capital, Narayangadh and in Rautahat where they also farm a small plot of their land, Pyare should have been a full time student but instead of attending classes, he’s attending to people’s various hairstyle demands.
There seems to be no economic problems in the family as such and his brother with whom he works seems a bit indifferent too, “No clue to what he will do…he’ll probably go back and study in the village school.”
But Pyare it seems has his future planned. Only time will tell whether his dreams will materialize or not but observing his adult like instincts and the way he lives an independent life at a tender age and that too in the capital, Pyare’s future looks settled.
“I love my work. I started working out of sheer interest and there was no family pressure as such as one would surmise,” he says excusing himself to spit a mouthful of the thick red paste that’s been making rounds inside his mouth.
“Education is a priority,” he adds as he grinds the paan and utters something in Bhojpuri, “I will complete my studies and join service or do my own business. This is my dream and I will make it happen.”
Understood that a determined boy like Pyare picked up the blades and scissors out of interest and there is no requirement of contributing to the family income as well but why the time off from school when Pyare walks with such a dream in his mind? Perhaps, the capital lifestyle has something to do with it.
Here in the capital, arrivals are in thousands from all parts of the country who come to live their Nepali dream. A decade long conflict and the alluring city lifestyle continue to fuel a never-seen-before migration trend within the country and in an alarming rate, young people, alienated in their immediate surroundings are leaving for major cities to fetch their dreams.
An unplanned suburbanization is thus on the rise and many young boys like Pyare Mohan Kumar are building a new society and a culture that now requires recognition and respect from the valley denizens.
Some like Pyare work in barbershops, others in garage and workshops and many in small teashops and restaurants. Basically, all the odd jobs around us have been taken care of by these young lads and a close observation tells us that they are basically school dropouts or would be in no time.
In Kundan Hair Dresser where Pyare starts his day at 7 in the morning, he also has his quarters and calls it a day at 9 after he’s done first with the mundane job which is followed by cooking, eating and dishwashing.
Styling as many as forty hairstyles in a day, Pyare earns NRs. 3000 a month of which he sends home NRs. 1500 and with the rest, he maintains his savings account and expenditure for his once-a-month outing.
Each last Tuesday of the Nepali calendar, Pyare gets together with his friends and gets a little naughty. Call it a weekend or a boys night out, it must be quite an awaited day for Pyare to at least give up blades and scissors for a day. A teenager he is and it is probably how he discovered his once-a-month affair with booze.
“I have friends here in the city. They are from Rautahat too and we are in the same business,” he says, “We take rounds in Dilli Bazar, Ratna Park, Baneshwar and in the woods at Pashupati in our free time.”
At other times, Pyare passes his time tuning into the radio and gets a facial once-in-a-while while his equals in the city take shelter in the concrete jungle equipped with all modern amenities.
Life and lives are now poles apart for children in the country, which will no doubt leave a hard impression on their young minds. Much as what was portrayed in the melodramatic masala movies of Bollywood in the early 80s. The Survival of the Fittest!
The fact is life for many of these children is like in the movies and Kollywood star Rajesh Hamal seems to have found a special accommodation in Pyare’s heart as he refers to a flyer of a film starring his celebrity, “That’s my hairdo.”
Unreported Lives is a weekly column for stories of ordinary people and their daily lives which often go unnoticed. Suggestions and feedback are welcome.
arpan@myrepublica.com
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