Bangalore to Chennai to Bristol to...

There's something about women in beauty parlours. There's an air about them. An air of self confidence, an air of I-know-what-I-want-and-I'm-going-to-get-it', a certain single minded determination.

Today I spent close to an hour and a half waiting for a friend to get done with her facial. As I sat in the reception , I watched the women coming , women with appointments, women rushing in after work to get a quick threading or pedicure done, women leaving after a facial, faces aglow, a sort of content, satisfied look on their faces. These women know what they want. " No I want Nanu to do my eyebrows, when will she be free?" or, " I'd like the Pearl Facial and I want Ms. Phukela (I swear, that is her name, Kulu Phukela in fact, ShahnazHussain-certified beautician) to do it for me". "I don't want to do the body shine, I'm running out of time now" .... And I don't even know what a body shine is....

And at one point, one lady stormed out of a room and worked into the reception , shouting to Ms. Phukela ( who looks a lot like Shahnaz Hussain, or I don't know if it was because of the excessive make-up) , " This girl, Nanu, she's cut my hair and kept me waiting for TEN minutes now, and she's doing someone else's eyebrows !! This is TOO much! " and stormed off.
Ms. Phukela, completely unperturbed by the whole thing, rose from her chair to "deal with Nanu" .

Then there were the rare one or two, a little lost, not forceful enough. They'd get pushed around a bit, told that they would have to wait, Ms. Phukela would frown and complain loudly about how people come without an appointment and expect the same service... But they didn't seem to mind all that , like they were used to it, or they just didn't feel like reacting.
It takes all kinds I guess.