Being a girl, trips to beauty parlours are inevitable. Beauty services in UK are sooooo costly. I mean, if you go by the rates here and compare them to what you get back in India, you'll feel, you are being robbed here. £7 for just eyebrows. If you convert that into rupees, its 70 rupees for just, simple eyebrows. Don't get me talking about other services. It breaks my heart. Probably because I'm new to UK and I'm still in the conversion mode. I keep converting pounds into rupees in my mind, and there lies my misery I guess.
Anyways, I think it will take me some time to 'just be' in the pounds mode. So, I've found this really nice parlour, right in the town centre, close to my house, and its run by Asians. The owner is a Pakistani and the workers are Marathis, Sikhs and North Indians. I am really glad that I found them, mainly because of three reasons. 1) Being there gives me a sense of home. I can converse with the staff in Hindi. 2) The services are relatively cheaper, so I get good quality at decent price and 3) They play awesome Hindi songs - from Punjabi tracks to latest chartbusters and sometimes even golden classics :)
So, I went to the parlour today. For the usual stuff, you know. And as I was waiting for my turn, an African lady walked in. She started chatting with the owner, asking her all sorts of questions like - When did you open this parlour? Where are you from? How many people work here? What nationality are your employees and so on. The owner, not wanting to appear rude to her customer, answered each and every query, the best she could.
On being told that she (the owner) was a Pakistani and her employees were Indians, the African lady looked shell shocked. "How do you all work here? Isn't it like India vs Pakistan here? I mean war-type situation," she blurted out. The owner smiled at her customer and said, "We are all brothers and sisters here. The only situation that you'll ever see here is that of love and togetherness. When I came to UK, I worked under a Sikh owner, she taught me everything that I know today, and 8 years later, she helped me open this parlour, where you are sitting today. I hope I've answered your questions. Next please."
I just couldn't help but smile. :)
Anyways, I think it will take me some time to 'just be' in the pounds mode. So, I've found this really nice parlour, right in the town centre, close to my house, and its run by Asians. The owner is a Pakistani and the workers are Marathis, Sikhs and North Indians. I am really glad that I found them, mainly because of three reasons. 1) Being there gives me a sense of home. I can converse with the staff in Hindi. 2) The services are relatively cheaper, so I get good quality at decent price and 3) They play awesome Hindi songs - from Punjabi tracks to latest chartbusters and sometimes even golden classics :)
So, I went to the parlour today. For the usual stuff, you know. And as I was waiting for my turn, an African lady walked in. She started chatting with the owner, asking her all sorts of questions like - When did you open this parlour? Where are you from? How many people work here? What nationality are your employees and so on. The owner, not wanting to appear rude to her customer, answered each and every query, the best she could.
On being told that she (the owner) was a Pakistani and her employees were Indians, the African lady looked shell shocked. "How do you all work here? Isn't it like India vs Pakistan here? I mean war-type situation," she blurted out. The owner smiled at her customer and said, "We are all brothers and sisters here. The only situation that you'll ever see here is that of love and togetherness. When I came to UK, I worked under a Sikh owner, she taught me everything that I know today, and 8 years later, she helped me open this parlour, where you are sitting today. I hope I've answered your questions. Next please."
I just couldn't help but smile. :)
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