A long time has passed since I had time to take care of my nails. It's getting embarrassing! Finally, I can't wait and I decide I'll just clip them. I always carry my clippers with me, but the problem is where. Where can you clip your nails and it won't be weird? How can you do it and not gross people out? What do you do with the nails if you clip them in your office? Besides, my office is so close to everyone else's they would all hear me. I can't clip them in the car, because I'm driving . I just get in position and the light changes, and I have to start all over again. And I can't do it in the coffee shop, the library, the lunch room, the doctor's office, or the grocery store.
I finally choose the bus stop. I look all around; nobody is on the sidewalk in either direction. Looking way down the road, I can't see the bus anywhere. But there is a steady stream of cars (and their drivers) passing by within ten feet of my chosen spot. Last week a couple of guys in a dump truck laughed at me for doing up my hair at the bus stop. What would they say about clipping my nails?
I look up and down the road again. My bus isn't due for at least five minutes. So I turn around in the bus stall, so the drivers won't see. I hope their music is turned up so they won't hear. The nails can go on the ground outside. All this bother, just to clip my nails!
It makes me think of traveling by train in India. Everyone in the whole car has to use the two toilets on either end of the carriage. Fortunately, there's a sink outside the toilets in the hall. In the morning, there's a carefully orchestrated arrangement involving the chai wallahs calling their first round of morning tea through the train and the elderly aunties, who automatically get to go first. People on the top bunks either have to be very early risers, or wait until the rush is over, after the third cup of chai. I always try to be polite while I watch young brides change out of their jeans and slip on the sparkle-trimmed salwar-kamiz or purda just before their stop, or sleep-deprived mothers brushing up the little girls' hair with oil and bright hair ties, or dignified gentlemen switching their pajama-kurta for a suit and tie.
Funny thing: everyone just washes their face or brushes their teeth right there in the open, and it's ok. Who would think of not brushing your teeth? Why would you take up precious time inside the toilet? People take full baths inside the toilet compartments They come out combing their hair and adjusting their pants.
It's silly that it should be embarrassing to clip your fingernails in public.
I finally choose the bus stop. I look all around; nobody is on the sidewalk in either direction. Looking way down the road, I can't see the bus anywhere. But there is a steady stream of cars (and their drivers) passing by within ten feet of my chosen spot. Last week a couple of guys in a dump truck laughed at me for doing up my hair at the bus stop. What would they say about clipping my nails?
I look up and down the road again. My bus isn't due for at least five minutes. So I turn around in the bus stall, so the drivers won't see. I hope their music is turned up so they won't hear. The nails can go on the ground outside. All this bother, just to clip my nails!
It makes me think of traveling by train in India. Everyone in the whole car has to use the two toilets on either end of the carriage. Fortunately, there's a sink outside the toilets in the hall. In the morning, there's a carefully orchestrated arrangement involving the chai wallahs calling their first round of morning tea through the train and the elderly aunties, who automatically get to go first. People on the top bunks either have to be very early risers, or wait until the rush is over, after the third cup of chai. I always try to be polite while I watch young brides change out of their jeans and slip on the sparkle-trimmed salwar-kamiz or purda just before their stop, or sleep-deprived mothers brushing up the little girls' hair with oil and bright hair ties, or dignified gentlemen switching their pajama-kurta for a suit and tie.
Funny thing: everyone just washes their face or brushes their teeth right there in the open, and it's ok. Who would think of not brushing your teeth? Why would you take up precious time inside the toilet? People take full baths inside the toilet compartments They come out combing their hair and adjusting their pants.
It's silly that it should be embarrassing to clip your fingernails in public.
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