My mother started work with me when I was forty days old. She used to place me near the kitchen and did her work as housemaid. When I grew up our struggle was even more difficult. We had no money to buy clothes in a year or to cut my hair in months. As a housemaid she only got food as wage. The food my mother got for her often gave me by saying she had headache and had no appetite for food.
I was too small to understand that she was hungry too. I was bullied for my long hair and it was not possible to tell anyone that we have no money to go to barber. My mother was my barber. She used to cut my hair and it always turned out messy. She tired a lot to make it perfect and then she would say, ‘When the other side will grow it will be even’. Then we laughed together realizing it will never be even. I learned to work by cutting hair of poor children like me.
My mother was my instructor. It’s been forty five years I am working as a barber. I first started work under a tree. During work, my mother stayed with me. She had a habit of calling poor children and telling me to cut the hair for free. I was always annoyed on her because most days we earned nothing. I told her that nobody remember any favor. But Maa always said, ‘Everyone remembers love’.I have a shop now. And my mother died years ago.
I have a shop now. And my mother died years ago. Still I give free hair cut to poor children. But none of them come back to me when they grow up. Sometimes I wondered how wrong my mother was, no one remembers love. Last year a young man came to my shop, smiled to me like he knew me for years. When I smiled to him, he hugged me. Still I was not recognizing him. He told me that he lives in Saudi. He is a construction worker. But I could not recognize him. He brought out a prayer mat and expensive blanket, asked me if he can meet my mother.
I found out that, he is one of the boys we gave free hair cut under that tree. He was impatiently waiting to go to meet my mother and then I told him that maa had died. After some silence he started crying like a child. He told me that no one ever valued him as an orphan; no one even stopped him and asked him if he needed anything. My mother always went to him and asked him to come with her to cut his hair. After the young man left, I pray in the prayer mat that he brought for my mother. During my prayer I was hearing my mother, she was telling me, ‘Everyone remembers love’.
– Moin Uddin (55)
My mother started work with me when I was forty days old. She used to place me near the kitchen and did her work as…
Posted by GMB Akash on Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Story By – GMB Akash
If you too have an inspiring story to tell the world, send us your story [email protected]