Folktale #1 The Barber’s Secret & Its Modern Retelling
A Tamil folktale that explores the illusion of perfection.
The life and work of A.K. Ramanujan are deeply influential. A poet, scholar, folklorist, and professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago, Ramanujan had a remarkable ability to bridge cultures through language and storytelling.
In his acclaimed book Folktales from India, he gathered stories from 22 languages across the country. Notably, he titled it Folktales from India, not of India emphasizing that no single collection can fully capture the evolving, diverse spirit of Indian oral traditions.
One such story is The Barber’s Secret, a Tamil folktale often shared in the villages of Tamil Nadu, though versions of it appear in many other Indian languages as well.
I chose this tale for its wit and above all, its humor. While the story is often retold in schools and elsewhere, in this version, I’ve given it a fresh twist of my own.
The Folktale (The Barber’s Secret)
In Konkan, there once lived a mighty and generous king with an extraordinary gift. He could hear even the faintest whisper. No one knew how he had gained such a power, and many were curious.
One day, while shaving the king, the royal barber noticed something strange beneath his long hair. Startled, he realized the king had different ears. He froze mid-shave, deep in thought, trying to recall where he had seen such ears before.
“What’s the matter?” the king asked sharply.
The barber snapped out of his trance, blurting, “Ha! I’ve seen them, on a donkey!”
The king’s eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”
The barber replied, “Your Majesty, your ears… they look like a donkey’s.”
The king turned red with anger, but then sighed, his rage fading. “They’ve been growing like this for some time,” he said quietly. But if you speak of it to anyone, I’ll cut off your head.
The barber swore never to speak a word. He finished the shave with trembling hands, and the king, hoping to buy his silence, handed him a satchel of gold.
On his way home, the barber began to shake with laughter. By the time he reached his door, he was nearly in tears. His mother greeted him, but he burst out laughing again. She stared at him, puzzled and a little hurt.
Later, as she served him food, he laughed so hard he nearly choked.
“What is it?” she cried. “Why are you laughing like a madman?”
The barber moaned, “How can I tell you? It’s the king’s secret. If I speak, I’ll lose my head!”
His mother thought for a moment. “Then don’t tell me,” she said. “Tell it to a tree. A tree won’t talk.”
The barber ran to the forest and found a tree. Standing close, he whispered the secret again and again, until it felt as if the weight had lifted from his chest. Satisfied, he went home, lighter in body and mind.
O tree, O tree, tell no one
what I tell you now.
…..
o tree of the forest, listen well
The great good king who rules our land has a donkey’s ears.
Some days later, a skilled musician searching for wood to make a new drum came upon that very tree. Finding it just right, he cut it down, carved a drum from its trunk, stretched leather over it, and tuned it carefully.
Soon after, he was invited to perform in the king’s court. The court singer began a majestic raga, then nodded to the drummer for a solo. The drummer played softly, making the drum “speak” with his fingers.
Tlang Tak Taka Taka Tlang
Tak Tlang Taka Tlang Taka Taka
The ears of the king are the ears of donkey
Tak Tlang Taka Taka Taka Tlang
The ears of the king are the ears of donkey
Now the king’s secret was no longer a secret. And at last, everyone understood how their king could hear even the faintest whisper.
Modern Retelling (The Whisperer Who Heard Himself)
A modern parable, adapted from Tamil folktale - The Barber’s Secret
In a glossy glass building in Lower Parel, Mumbai, there lived a manager named Mr. Ghosh. He wasn’t just any manager. He was legendary. He had an uncanny talent for knowing which employee was going to quit. Everyone feared and respected Mr. Ghosh at the same time.
Whether it was hesitation in a “Good morning” or a small change in a LinkedIn profile, he would notice everything. Once he noticed, he acted. The employee would either leave the company or get fired.
One day, a new intern joined the company. His name was Ved. He joined Mr. Ghosh for orientation. The first question Mr. Ghosh asked was about his LinkedIn profile. Ved said he didn’t have one. Mr. Ghosh was disappointed. Then he asked a series of strange questions: When are you planning to leave the company? Do you want to work somewhere better?
Ved answered as best he could, but he was confused. There was something about Mr. Ghosh that bothered him, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He asked around. He read old Slack threads. He even reached out to former employees on LinkedIn.
Then it hit him.
Mr. Ghosh wasn’t predicting anything. He was creating a story. A false narrative that everyone accepted. Even the people who left started to believe it.
Ved couldn’t believe he had cracked it. He wanted to share it, to make sense of it. So he opened a blank Google Doc and wrote:
“Mr. Ghosh is the Resignation.”
He didn’t mean to share it. Not really. He just left the tab open. But somehow, the link got copied into a company deck. Then into a team newsletter. Then into the onboarding folder.
By the next morning, it had reached every desk.
Nobody said anything, but something shifted. For the first time, people said good morning without hesitation. Someone updated their LinkedIn headline. Someone else wore flip-flops.
And Mr. Ghosh?
He began to notice that no one was afraid anymore. That’s when he started watching his own reflection in the glass, just a little longer than before. Trying to figure out what story he was in now.
Core Lesson: The Illusion of Perfection Will Always Leak
At its heart, the story is about authority trying to hide an embarrassing flaw, and how that flaw inevitably finds its way out. not through rebellion, but through nature, whispers, or accident.