Mr.
Anthony Gonsalves was balding. He would meticulously pick up the strands of
his hair over the floor and throw them away to take a relaxed breath. He had
tried everything, from oils and ointments to fruits and beer and what not. But
he felt like a dead tree in a dessert. Nothing would grow on those branches
ever again, and the crows and the pigeons would have a laugh shitting over it.
Mr.
Anthony Gonsalves felt cheated by life in general. He often missed the way his
face used to look with all that hair over the head. Sometimes he didn’t like
them much and got them all shaved, yes, but little did he know that they would suddenly
start leaving him like that.
Some were
gone fast, and some still remained at the back. Mr. Anthony Gonsalves went and
bought himself a cap. He did not appreciate wearing wigs. Slowly he became very
possessive of the cap. It was the only thing that had hidden his barren soil
and showed only the well oiled and combed chunk of hair at the back. His comb
also never left his pocket.
He would
still go to the barber’s shop and carefully instruct the barber on how to cut
his remaining hair. People who were in waiting would look at his head at least
once and then try to catch each other’s eyes.
One night Mr.
Anthony Gonsalves got very drunk and felt very sentimental. So he came back to
his house, gently woke his wife up and asked if she remembers the way he used
to look when he was younger. ‘Of course,’ she sleepily replied covering her
nose, ’you still look the same.’ Mr. Gonsalves thought that Mrs. Gonsalves had
not yet noticed her husband’s balding. He wondered if she was having an affair.
He
wondered if it was her boss.
The
remaining hair at the back left him earlier than he had expected. The cap became
useless now, though it always remained over his desk. He could never know if
his wife was cheating. He still regularly visits the barber’s shop and gets all
the little hair near his ears trimmed, remembering his glory days. He wants to
get a hair transplant soon.
Also he has now hidden his comb over a bookshelf.
Also he has now hidden his comb over a bookshelf.
_