Japanese Jacky has a quick smile, and is armed with an electric razor and a pair of scissors she isn’t afraid to use.
Japanese Jacky giving free haircut to a Banarasi at a Ghat, Varanasi- (HT photos by Rajesh Kumar )
Meet Chiaki Ishikawa, a middle-aged tourist (she refuses to divulge her age) from Nagoya in Japan, currently on her ninth visit to the country — and to the city of ghats — which she first saw eight years ago. She has visited every year since 2016, spending three months at a stretch in Varanasi.
As soon as she stepped into the zigzag narrow lanes of Varanasi, she fell in love with the city, she said. “I love Varanasi and its ghat very much. The people of Varanasi are very good. I like ghats and narrow lanes and doing yoga at the ghats daily,” she says in English, sitting on the verandah of the Hanuman temple at Pandey ghat.
I love sitting here at the ghat, watching the river Ganga flowing calmly and cutting people’s hair, she says. This is what gives me peace of mind.
Ishikawa visits the ghats every morning, and after an hour of yoga, she sits on a cement bench or the stairs of the ghats, takes out a comb, and slips her fingers through the scissors. Soon, she’s busy giving free haircuts to passers-by, other tourists, and even local residents of the city. Offering haircuts helps her communicate with people. She is now famous as “Japanese Jacky haircut-wali” among the locals.
“Bhaiya, ye log mujhe Japanese Jacky kahate hai Kyunki inhe Chiaki bolna kathin lagta hai… [At the ghats, the people call me Jacky since they find it difficult to pronounce Chiaki]. No problem, bhaiya," she says. She giggles after every sentence she speaks in Hindi.
Giving people free haircuts at the ghats was her way to connect with the locals, she adds.
“I get up early and go to Assi ghat. There I do yoga for over an hour and then walk back to my room in a guest house near Chausatti ghat,” she says. She begins with the haircuts at Assi and continues for an hour or more, depending on her mood.
“I got my haircut from Jacky (Chiaki). She gave a free haircut and took nothing in lieu. Jacky just sipped a cup of tea. She is a wonderful person,” said Ramswaroop Gupta, a 45-year-old local resident.
Vijay Gupta, who owns a tea stall at Assi Ghat also received a haircut that day. “While sipping a cup of tea, she asked me if I wanted a haircut. I nodded. She gave a very good haircut, and didn’t take anything in return,” he said.
“She has learnt a little Hindi and lives like a Banarasi. She comes to Assi ghat daily when she visits Varanasi,” said Anuj Singh, another recipient of the haircut and a local.
Needless to say, Ishikawa is a hairdresser back home. “There is an art and a skill to giving haircuts. It is a medium to communicate with people,” she says.
She plans to return home to her parents and her salon in May. Till then, if you happen to visit Benaras, don’t get a haircut before you travel.
Sudhir Kumar is Varanasi based senior staff correspondent.He covers all developments, politics, education--primary, secondary and higher -- crime, offbeat, tribes and human angle stories
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