A Barber with Healing Fingers (standard:non fiction, 721 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Dec 07 2013	Views/Reads: 4663/1860	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
In anacient India, the profession of barbering, body massaging and playing drums in a band were all bundled into one barber caste. How that happened?

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drum trap set in big bands, and I wish I learned wind instruments like 

trumpet or clarinet.” 

“It is amazing how you learn hair cutting and playing musical 

instruments, a totally unrelated field?' 

“For people born into our caste, these skills come naturally 

and elders train us from our childhood; practically anybody can learn 

how to cut hair, massage and play musical instruments from a good 

teacher.” 

“Do the people born into other castes getting into your trade 

now?” 

“Certainly many women from different castes are now taking the 

profession of hair styling; massage parlors were also becoming very 

popular now, people from various background playing music not just 

those born into the barber caste.” 

“Is this trend good or bad for you?” 

“We don't have monopoly on these trades anymore like in old 

days but still the majority of people born into the traditional barber 

caste have a grip on our traditional trades.” 

The barber on finishing the hair trim proceeded to give a head 

massage without asking for a consent; his fingers ploughed deep into 

the hair racking the scalp as if  a mechanical plough working deep into 

soil before planting. He was tapping his fingers on the scalp with a 

rhythm as if he was playing a drum.  The sensation from head massage 

was so comforting, Juggernaut felt as if he was drunk. While the 

physiological effect of massaging was unclear to Juggernaut, no massage 

parlor in the United States could match the quality of massage from a 

traditional barber in India.   “No school could train somebody into a 

hair dresser or a masseur; one has to born into the barber caste to 

become a true barber and a masseur,” thought Juggernaut getting from a 

temporary euphoria from head massage. 

If Ringo Starr, a member the famous Beatles were to born in 

India in barber caste, he could have been a barber first, then a body 

massager then a drummer, in that order.  He could have been ended up as 

a celebrity hair dresser or a massager with rhythm. 


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