About two months into the total nationwide lockdown in India, my stock of various things, including my favorite shaving gel, had dwindled rapidly, and at some point I had no choice but to razor my facial surface with no lather that needed to be shaved. That these products were labeled ‘non-essential’ gave me some comfort in terms of continuing my existence without any of these. In particular, the act of daily shaving for which I reasoned “who the hell is likely to stare at my unshaven face with chaotic stubble stubble if I don’t shave daily, because when I go out my face is completely masked and if any guests from The most ‘essential’ guy shows up, again we fully mask and tackle him!” however, I felt that my wife would be very offended if she kept showing my ugly face for days after the continuous ‘stay-at-home’ phenomenon; and thus, i started my search for any of the shaving creams or gels, no matter my preferences.
During that period only ‘essential’ stores/supermarkets were open with limited hours every day, and while they usually had all sorts of shaving products due to the ‘non-essential’ classification, supply had stopped and they were out of stock . I have searched the online stores but they too suffered from the same cause and effect and were only limited to delivering essential items which were also not operational for over two months. Call it my luck or my misfortune, finally, I found a shaving gel that was almost ten times more expensive than my favorite gels. As desperate times call for desperate measures, I asked for the same. I had some doubts from the beginning, because the company mainly makes women’s products, and in the adequate stock of my wife’s cosmetics I found a large number of her products.
In my rush to get a gentleman’s shave, I ignored the instructions written on the side of the oblong-shaped round plastic bottle. As usual, I squeezed some gel onto my shaving brush and went through the usual mechanics. It was an absolute disaster, and I had to complete the job with as thin foam lines as possible on the parts of my face that needed to be shaved. So I read the instructions or rather I had to.
The next morning, I tried the tutorial: I pressed some creamy gel into the palm of my left hand, and with my right hand I applied it directly to the places on my face that needed shaving. That day was also unsuccessful as the rich creamy lather penetrated my nostrils more than it covered the parts of my face that needed shaving, and the creamy layers made my palms so rich that I had to spend a lot of time in the sink. . I thought the product was not the right one for me and the large amount of money I spent was wasted. Again, I found solace in the fact that many of our fellow human beings were spending millions paying at least three or four times the MRP for some addictive-type products that were available through a lopsidedly skewed supply chain; you can simply call it black marketing.
It was common practice for many of our lucky compatriots with a guaranteed monthly income to watch a lot of TV and movies that were available on streaming platforms thanks to ‘connectivity’ being considered a ‘must have’ for emerging phenomena. of online classes and online office work. In one of the movies I watched, I suddenly saw the hero casually shaving while delivering the lines and using a similar gel that I bought out of compulsion. I was amazed at how easily he applied the gel and spread the rich creamy lather over the parts of the face that needed to be shaved. That got me really excited, and that also explained why the product was so expensive.
Then, I started using that gel regularly, slowly getting used to its mechanics, starting to enjoy it too: the rich creamy lather that made this nullity feel like a poor man’s hero. Unfortunately, my joyride with easy riches was abruptly cut short when my favorite shave gels, at one-tenth the price of that rich gel, became available on the market. As a twist in the story, when I went back to my cheap gels, my poor shaving brush, neglected and abandoned for so long, refused to follow his strings and he broke out in goosebumps. But luckily, that problem was slowly resolved, and as a result, the expensive gel became everlasting. Therefore, I often check the expiration date of the rich product, and when I see the date approaching, I start using it more. Well, there’s absolutely nothing insensitive about feeling rich… once in a while, of course.