Mahoba, Bundelkhand: Irregularities in income and unstructured labour market births innovative money-making schemes

There are scenes you see on a regular midsummer day in Bundelkhand that turn the most common business ideas into those tinged with pathos and absurdity. Like the picture of a market square where a weighing scale balances a fluffy head of hair against a half kg. weight. Hair that has been painstakingly collected by women as they comb their tresses each day, and then handed over to Sunil of Supa village, who comes a-calling to their village on his cycle. He barters the hair for small necessary goods – utensils, stationary and snacks for the kids. He’s been doing this for six years now, and it’s as comfortable a livelihood as any in factory-less, drought-prone Mahoba.