Taj Saloon

Taj Saloon is located at No 43 on St Xavier Street in George Town. If you know Chennai, you know how George Town is. It is full of narrow streets and old buildings. We are near Murugan Theatre in the Seven Wells area. The street is always cramped with bikes and people walking. Our shop is a small, traditional saloon for men. We have the old-style heavy chairs that have been here for years. Every morning, we sweep the sidewalk and then the inside. The air smells like shaving cream and that cheap cologne we use after a cut. Men from the neighborhood come in, and some have been coming since they were boys. We don’t have air conditioning, just a couple of wall fans that hum loudly. It gets hot in the summer, but nobody seems to mind much. We talk about the movies playing at Murugan Theatre or the local news. The shop is a place where you just sit and wait your turn. We keep the razors sharp and the towels clean. It’s not a place with fancy decorations. The walls have a few old calendars on them. George Town is a busy, messy part of the city, but inside the saloon, things move at their own slow pace. We just keep doing what we’ve always done for the people here. It is a simple life and we know most of the people who walk past our door.