A Folktale from Bengal
Babu the barber and his wife Meena lived in the village of Taklupur. But they were not very happy. While Babu was a very skilled barber, there was never enough work in his village. Taklupur was a unique place. It had a good number of bald people. Very few people needed haircuts and so the barber did not make much money. In fact, Babu and Meena barely had enough to eat on most days.
The barber’s wife would complain to him every single day. “If you didn’t have the means to support a family, why did you marry me?” she would ask crossly.
“At my parents’ house, I had large scrumptious spreads almost every day… Oh, how I miss… aloo dum… maach bhaat… and mishti… my favourite…” she yearned.
One warm afternoon, when the barber was blissfully napping in the courtyard, Meena lost her patience. In a fit of anger, she ran after her husband with a broomstick. She chased him all around the house, yelling, “You lazy fellow! Are you ever going to find a job that pays?”
“Meenaaa…listennn… I have some clever ideas… I was…” tried Babu.
But Meena interrupted him, “Clever ideas? What should I do with your clever ideas? Eat them with rice?” she cried, still chasing him.
After this broomstick incident, the barber felt very insulted. He packed up his tools and decided to set out in search of work.
“I will only see your face when I become rich!” promised a humiliated Babu before leaving.
“Humph!” scoffed Meena.
As the barber did not have much hope of finding work in his own village, he decided to try his luck in the next one. When he entered Keshpur, he was delighted to see the village people.
The people of Keshpur had lots and lots of hair…
Straight hair, curly hair, short hair, long hair, thin hair, thick hair…
It was a barber’s dream come true.
Babu was convinced that he was about to make a fortune in Keshpur. He stopped and offered his services to a man sporting a very long unkempt beard.
The man laughed out loud and said, “My dear fellow, in Keshpur we believe that hair is a divine gift. Surely, we won’t go around cutting our divine gifts, would we now?”
And so, a disappointed Babu decided to go to the next village instead.
Swayampur was only an hour away. It was a quaint little village with brightly coloured houses.
Babu spotted a wise-looking lady tending to her garden. “Namaste. My name is Babu and I am very talented.”
“Yes, yes… we all are,” she replied absent-mindedly.
“Um… no, I meant… I am a skilled barber and I am here to offer my hair-cutting services,” added Babu hopefully.
“Ah… but in Swayampur we all are skilled barbers. In fact, we are skilled at everything… we are all barbers, gardeners, builders, tailors, swimmers…” explained the lady. “Out here, it is our custom to do all our work ourselves. See, I have grown these flowers all on my own!” she said proudly.
“Right!” remarked Babu and turned around to leave Swayampur. He went to a few more villages but had no luck whatsoever. At nightfall, Babu reached the outskirts of a forest. He was tired, hungry and dispirited.
He lay down to rest under a tamarind tree. Soon, he fell asleep and started to mumble, ”Trim… hair… bald… money… beard…”
These words caught the attention of a young ghost who lived on this tree. He peered at Babu from the branches and smacked his lips.
“Just what I need. A midnight snack!” thought the young ghost.
The ghost climbed down and came close to the sleeping man. He looked at his chunky ankles. “He will do nicely… very nicely indeed!” said the young ghost with glee.
So, the young ghost made a dramatic entry in his ghostly style. With outspread arms and a gaping mouth, he jumped in front of the sleeping barber and bellowed. “YOUR TIME IS UP! I AM GOING TO EAT YOU! NOBODY CAN SAVE YOU NOW!”
MWAH HA HA HA HA!
Babu woke up with a fright…
GASP!
… and jumped out of his skin.
He saw a truly horrifying sight in front of him – a pale, towering ghost with lanky limbs and long slender fingers. As the young ghost took a step closer, Babu started shaking from head to toe and his hair stood on end.
“Now, now… where should I start… chubby arms… bony fingers… or crunchy toes?” the young ghost wondered loudly.
The young ghost looked even scarier up close. He had yellow eyes with a deathly stare and his teeth looked sharp and pointy.
“I… I… please… don’t…” tried Babu, but no words came out.
A chill ran down his spine, but the barber had to think fast if he wanted to survive this terrible fate.
At first his mind went blank, but then Babu had an idea!
He mustered up all his courage and said in a steady voice, “O silly spirit, try if you must! But you won’t succeed, as I am no ordinary barber.
Do you know what’s in my bag?”
The ghost looked confused as Babu continued, “I have trapped many a ghost inside this. And they were bigger, scarier and toothier than you.”
The ghost looked bewildered.
Huh!
“But that is a very small bag to fit so many ghosts as you claim,” the young ghost asked suspiciously.
Babu pulled out a rectangular mirror from his bag of tools and held it in front of the young ghost’s face.
“Look! This is the face of the last ghost I captured tonight before meeting you. Counting you, I will have trapped fifty ghosts just this week,” said the barber with an evil grin.
But the young ghost still looked doubtful and Babu knew he had to act quickly.
So, the barber pulled out a comb and said, “And in case you were wondering, this is what I use to straighten out the ghosts.”
And then he took out his largest pair of scissors and added, “And with this I trim the ghosts so that they fit neatly inside my ghost catcher!”
The barber made an ominous snipping sound with his scissors.
Snip! Snip!
“Now, now… where should I start… lanky legs… uneven fingers… or pointy ears?” the barber wondered loudly.
The young ghost was convinced and believed every word the barber had spoken.
Now, he was scared and willing to do anything to avoid being straightened, trimmed and bagged!
“Oh, Sir Barber… I am but a young ghost just learning how to haunt… I will give you whatever you want! Please… please don’t trap me,” he begged.
“No. I would rather meet my ghost quota for the week,” replied Babu firmly.
The young ghost was now even more terrified. He had to somehow plead his case.
“Sir Barber… I am a ghost of many talents and I haunt just the right places, including the Queen’s palace! I can be very useful to you.”
“But you ghosts are a deceitful lot. Why should I trust you?”
“I… I am willing to do anything… any task… whatever you need done… right away…” stuttered the young ghost.
“Oh, all right! I can make an exception for you, I suppose. Let’s see if you are as good as your word. First, go and get me one thousand gold mohurs right away. But remember, if you fail, I will bag you!” warned the barber.
“As you wish, Sir Barber!” said the young ghost and left immediately.
He promptly reached the Queen’s palace and terrorised the guards at the palace treasury.
Mission accomplished, the young ghost returned to the tamarind tree with a bag filled with a thousand gold mohurs.
As he handed it to Babu, the barber’s eyes gleamed and he knew that finally his luck had turned.
Feeling confident that the young ghost had believed his bluff, Babu gave him a second task. “Now that you have passed the test, go build a granary at my house in Taklupur. Make sure that it’s ready by tomorrow night and filled with paddy. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Sir Barber. As you wish,” said the young ghost meekly.
The next morning, the barber joyfully returned home with a jingling bag of gold mohurs.
Meena, who had been worried about her husband, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Babu.
She ran to greet him and apologised for her outburst. Babu smiled and showed her the bag of gold mohurs.
“O Ma! Is that really… gold…?” she gasped in disbelief.
Babu told her about his encounter with the young ghost and how he had not only escaped a painful death but also made a fortune out of the tricky situation.
Meena was happy to see him back home and sound and delighted that now they were rich.
The same night, the young ghost turned up at the barber’s house to build him a granary as commanded.
The poor young ghost was so scared of being put into the bag that he worked without a single break and finished building the granary in record time.
He was carrying large sheaves of paddy, when his uncle, an old ghost, came by.
“Why exactly are you carrying such heavy sheaves of paddy on your back?” asked the confused old ghost.
“Shush! Uncle, please speak softly or he will hear us!” whispered the young ghost, who was dripping with sweat and fear.
“He? Who’s he?” asked the old ghost.
The young ghost told his uncle about his terrible misfortune – how a seemingly harmless midnight snack had turned into a never-ending nightmare.
The old ghost was aghast. “You gullible fool! You really think the barber can bag you?”
“Uncle, don’t doubt the power of this barber. He is a very skilled ghost catcher. He even showed me the face of the last ghost he had bagged,” replied the young ghost with a shudder.
“What nonsense! Bah!” dismissed the old ghost.
“You don’t believe me? Come and see for yourself,” offered the young ghost.
The ghosts headed straight to the barber’s bedroom window. They brought with them a strong cold gust of wind which slammed the window open.
Babu sat up in his bed. “Oh… what was that!”
When he looked out of the window, he saw not one but two ghosts approaching him swiftly. He acted quickly and dug out the mirror from his tool bag. He flashed the mirror in their direction and both the ghosts were startled to see their own reflections.
“Aha! It’s my lucky night. Two ghosts together! Come now, let’s make this quick. Let’s bag both of you so that I can go back to sleep,” said Babu loudly in a threatening voice.
Both the young and the old ghost were petrified.
EEEEEP!
GULP!
“Please don’t trap me! I am an old and weary ghost. Have some mercy!” pleaded the old ghost.
The barber continued to hold the mirror in front of the ghosts. “No mercy for you! You disturbed my sleep and now you must pay!”
Both the ghosts shuddered.
But the old ghost quickly offered, “I… I will build another granary for you and fill it up with wheat.”
“Oh, all right! I can make another exception, I suppose. Now get to work!” ordered Babu.
The two ghosts built a second granary that night and were never to be seen again.
In just two nights, the barber and his wife had not only acquired one thousand gold mohurs, but they also had two large granaries filled with paddy and wheat.
The barber became a rich trader in grain and Meena no longer complained.
They both lived happily ever after in Taklupur.
And from that day on, Babu the trader never left home without his trusty ‘Ghost Catcher’ tools just in case he met another ghost or someone needed a haircut.
