Prince's Head Shave by Nitesh

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It was early April 2020, and everything was closed due to the restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus. I was driving home when I saw a bald man with a shikha (a tuft of hair left on the crown of the head after shaving the rest) (his back was towards me) sweeping outside his house. I recognized that the bald man was my friend Prince. From his bald head, it was clear that he had recently shaved it with a razor. I stopped my car near him. He looked at me because of the sound of the car and smiled. I responded with a light smile as well.

"Where did your hair go?" I asked.
"What should I tell you now? You know my father very well. It's a long story," he said.
That was enough for me to realize that his father had made him shave his head—or should I say, his father shaved it himself, because he was a barber.
I knew his father was short-tempered. He even beat Prince when he didn’t follow the rules, did something his father didn’t like, or failed to stay within the discipline his father had set.

"Where is he now?" I asked about his father.
"He’s inside, watching TV."

I left my car and went straight inside to see his father. As I was walking in, Prince asked, "Where are you going?"

I came out after some time and saw Prince looking at the door.
"Have you finished cleaning?" I asked.
"Almost," he said.
"I’ve taken permission from your father. You’re coming with me to my house. I’ll drop you back here in the evening."
"What? Did he really allow it?"
"Don’t waste time," I told him. "You’re coming with me. We’ll play some games on the PS, and you’ll tell me what happened to your hair."
"Give me some time," he said.

He finished cleaning, went inside, and came back after a while. Then we both went to my house. It was afternoon. We played some games, and then he told me the story of how he got his head shaved.

He told me that yesterday his father said schools are closed due to COVID and that they would remain closed for a long time. He also said, 'I want you to shave your head in a day or two,' but I refused because, as you know, I already got a head shave in November last year and even went to school bald. Then he told me that he had a small argument with his father, during which he told him to leave him alone and get out of his life. This was enough to trigger his father, who slapped him twice. Then his father grabbed him by the shirt collar, took him outside, threw him into the car, and drove straight to his barbershop. He opened the shop, told him to go inside and sit on the chair. He followed him in and pulled down the shutter so that the shop looked closed from the outside.

Then he told me that he had been silently sitting on the chair, accepting his fate. His father came and wrapped a cloth around him. He then wetted his hair and loaded a new blade into the razor. First, he shaved the top front part of his head, and I could see his hair falling down. His father told him, 'You have to shave your head every month until school opens. You must also shave your head one day before school starts, and if you don't do it, I will.'

He said he looked at himself in the mirror and saw that the top front part of his head was completely shaved. Then his father shaved the back, followed by both sides. After shaving his head completely bald, his father used the razor again to go over it. Finally, he applied shaving cream to his head and shaved it once more with the razor.

After finishing his story, he asked me what I had said to his father to bring me there. I replied, 'I will tell you this later.' Then I asked him to take a bath. After that, we spent the remaining time doing different things, and in the evening, I dropped him off at his house.

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