Ranchi: Customers at a makeshift hair-cutting saloon on Ranchi's main road are not aware that the barber chopping off their hair is a PhD degree holder and also a writer.
It has been 15 months since Ashraf Hussain earned his doctorate "Doctor of Philosophy" (faculty of humanities) from the Ranchi University (RU) and this year in September his book on Urdu women writers of Jharkhand is expected to be ready.
Located in the Upper Bazaar locality, Ashraf's saloon has the bare necessities: an old chair and a small mirror. A plastic sheet supported by two bamboo sticks completes the infrastructure. He manages to earn Rs 150-200 every day working for eight hours or so.
Ashraf, who has to run a seven-member family exclusively with earnings from the saloon, may be poor but his ambitions are not. "I am hopeful of clearing the UGC's National Eligibility Test (NET) which I took last December. I will apply for lectureship after that," said Ashraf.
The results of the NET test, held in December 2011, are likely to be out soon. And pray, what was the subject of his thesis? "A comparative and analytical study of eminent Urdu short story writers of Jharkhand".
Ashraf has been cutting hair ever since his father, Abdul Aziz, expired in 1991. He had just cleared his intermediate examination then. "Under financial pressure I had to abandon studies till 1999," he said.
But the desire to learn kept simmering inside Ashraf. Somehow, he started his studies all over again. He did his BA (Urdu honours) from Doranda College between 1999 and 2002 and postgraduation between 2003 and 2005.
Ashraf is writing a book on women Urdu writers of Jharkhand, which will be ready by September. "The state has many good writers, but all of them are not famous," he added.
The barber, however, has no plans to quit his work right now. "I prefer working as a barber because there is no pressure or stress. I get ample time to study. I also study at my saloon," said Ashraf.
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