Skip to main content

Bengal Man Took 'No Haircut' Vow Till Trinamool Lost. He's Now Shaved His Head

Fifteen years is a long time to go without a haircut. In West Bengal's Cooch Behar, one man says politics was the reason.

Baneshwar Barman, a resident of Bengal's Baman Para village, finally cut his hair this week after fulfilling a vow he claims to have made in 2011: that he would not trim his hair as long as the All India Trinamool Congress remained in power in West Bengal.

On Thursday morning, surrounded by neighbours and curious onlookers, Barman had his head shaved near his home.

Barman, a migrant worker employed at brick kilns and known in the area as a BJP supporter, maintained the vow for nearly a decade and a half.

“Since the Trinamool government came, I haven't even touched a barber's shop,” he said.

Asked whether the long hair affected his work, Barman laughed and replied: “No, I tie it in a bun.”

“On May 4, the day the election results were declared, my eyes were glued to the TV screen from early morning. When the BJP crossed the 100-seat mark, I simply could not take my eyes off the screen. Today, I am truly overjoyed,” Barman said.

Barman said he now plans to return to normal life after ending the symbolic protest.

“Now that the BJP is here, new hair will grow. I'll cut it whenever I want,” he said.

As news spread through the village, residents gathered near his home. After the tonsure ceremony, family members and locals distributed muri, or puffed rice, as part of the celebrations.

Explaining the reason behind his long-standing frustration, Barman claimed there had been little development in the area over the past 15 years.

He said his family, including his son and two daughters, had struggled through the period and that the lack of visible change was one of the reasons he had hoped for a political shift.

(With inputs from Prabir Kundu)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/5WkwmZ9

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PM Modi To Reschedule 3-Nation Europe Visit As Tensions With Pakistan Soar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put his three-nation Europe visit on hold as tensions between India and Pakistan have surged in the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 civilians were killed by Pak-linked terrorists in a religiously-motivated terror attack. India responded on Wednesday with precision missile strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. PM Modi, who is closely-monitoring the situation, has reportedly asked for his visit to Croatia, Norway, and the Netherlands, which was due next week, to be rescheduled. As per his original schedule Prime Minister Modi was to commence his official visit to the three nations on May 13. He was also going to participate in the India-Nordic Summit in Oslo on May 15 and 16. All three countries have been informed about the change in PM Modi's schedule. They have also been appraised about the current situation between India and Pakistan. Last month too, on the day of the Pahalga...

After Nitish Kumar's 'Praise', BJP Says Doors Closed For Him

The opposition BJP in Bihar on Thursday said that its doors were "closed" for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who dumped the saffron party a year ago, stripping it of power in the state. State BJP President Samrat Choudhary made the averment to this effect in reply to queries from journalists about the Janata Dal United leader's address to the convocation ceremony of Mahatma Gandhi Central University at Motihari. Speaking in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu and Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Mr Kumar had freely spoken of the tussle he had with the then Congress government at the Centre for getting a university approved for Motihari, where Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Champaran Satyagraha. Without mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, Mr Kumar acknowledged that the project saw the light of the day only after a change of guard "in 2014" as the UPA government "initially refused and after much persuasion agreed in principle but did not move for...

Delhi Air On Brink Of Turning "Severe", Most Polluted In India

Delhi's air quality was on the brink of the 'severe' category on Sunday with an overall AQI reading of 382 - the worst recorded in the country for the day. Fifteen monitoring stations of the city recorded air quality levels in the 'severe' zone, having AQI readings over 400, data showed. The city also recorded its lowest nighttime temperature so far, as thick smog and haze shrouded it in a dense cover during the morning and evening hours. The minimum temperature recorded on Sunday was 16.5 degrees Celsius, 1.2 degrees above normal, according to the weather department. The national capital's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 382, worsening from 316 the previous day. The locations where air pollution levels reached the 'severe' zone are Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, NSIT Dwarka, Najafgarh, Nehru Nagar, Okhla Phase 2, Patparganj, Punjabi Bagh, Rohini, Wazirpur and Vivek Vihar...