HAIR-CUTTING
NIRANJANA MISRA
What’s wrong with your hair Gandhi? Rats have been at it?” “No”. The white barber would not condescend to touch my black hair”, said I. ‘so I preferred to cut it myself, no matter how badly’
- M.K. Gandhi
Then said the white barber
‘I will not touch your black-hair’
Thus, out of anger
You must have purchased
A pair of clippers.
Anyway, you must have managed
to cut the front hair
standing before the mirror.
O Ahimsa Incarnate!
So merciless on your back hair?
Such is your sense of humour
Your friends’ comments
You simply didn’t care.
Your hair must have been
like the twenty-two sacred steps
of Lord Jagannath
I very often imagine
you were sent by Heaven
only on deputation
to the world of erring mortals
for this arduous act of
hair-cutting, for making
the rulers round-headed
by the twin scissors
of Truth and Non-violence!