Lice Terminator

How many of you remember being infested with lice during your childhood? They are one hell of a species which never say die. They feed on the scalp and the debris in our skin.The lice in the hair are usually dark in colour whereas the ones which we host in the other parts of the body are white. Lice usually create a problem in the children.The nits (eggs of a louse) are quite persistent because they don't come off easily from the roots of the hair they are attached. The reason is the special saliva that the mother louse secretes while laying eggs. So most often the productive time of the women in Nepal is wasted in hunting lice and nits in each other's scalp.

The nits don't come off easily from the roots of the hair. Hence hunting them down is considered a talent among the women folk. A woman or a girl who hunts the most number of well fed dark lice is considered a good hunter and most of the women offer her to explore their scalps, in a sunny day. 

But what about the picture above and the ones below? Oh well! Since we all know that there is always an invention to a necessity, the man in the pictures is the maker of what I want to label as lice terminator.........it's name is Likhauto in Nepali where Likha refers to nits. This comb made from bamboo is a good solution for all the lice and nits. This comb doesn't only shovel out plump lice from the scalp but it wreaks a havoc on the peaceful lives of all those nits.

Usually normal combs pull out just the bigger ones and not the babies (chamkana) or the eggs. But this Likhauto is widely used in the villages of Nepal as a great solution for lice extermination without the use of chemicals.

The less gap these comb needles have between themselves, the better they are. But at least, the needles should be able to go through the strands of hair.

We found this man at work on a Nepal Bandha's Day! When all the shops were closed and everyone was out rallying in the streets for some cause, this man oblivious of the cause and his surrounding, was intent in the craft; he had already sold some of his products on the spot!

The rally turned out to be nothing; just a babble of words. The constitution, it seems, is not made on the streets. The man, when his work was over, picked up his belongings  and went his way. But the lice have infested us and we forgot to buy the Lice Terminator from this guy. The lice are sucking our blood and sucking our lives. They are breeding everywhere. I wish, as the Lice Terminator was packing his bags, he would have turned his head at us and said, " I'll be back."