Ah! The luxury of taking bath without worrying that you have to rush out for office or that the water is running out। The comfort of getting a massage without spending on exotic spas. Wish I could explain my toddler how lucky she is at her age!
Growing up in Mumbai suburbs in the 1980’s and 90’s meant one thing – we knew Water is Precious. We never had the luxury of 24 * 7 water supply. One hour, every morning 5-6 days a week. That’s it! That one hour was a no nonsense time when my mother would be busy filling up every tank, tub and bucket in the house. The water was just enough for regular drinking and cooking. Cleaning had to be done with minimum wastage which meant one medium sized bucket per person for a bath. Utensils could never be washed under running water. Add to it the once/twice a week water cuts and never ending inflow of stay over guests. An occasional mistake of forgetting to close the tap would get us a scolding from our poor mother who had to figure out how to survive till the next morning or day after.
Vacationing in our native place was another story. There was always plenty of water in the well (बाँय) to be used for everything – watering the trees, cleaning the big house, washing truckload of clothes because we kids used to get our clothes dirty playing in the mud and most importantly for long baths. The bathroom(न्हाणी) had two massively big copper pots (भाण) one each for hot and cold water embedded into a platform. The hot water pot had a section under it to burn fuel. My grandfather would wake up at dawn and light the fuel (dry leaves, coconut kernels, paper etc). Then he would blow air into it till it was burning bright and emitted smoke enough to burn our eyes 🙂 He would then kindle the fire few more times to keep the water hot until late afternoon till everyone had finished bath. My grandmother would ensure that there was water in both the pots which wasn’t an easy task given that when the electric motor failed (which was most of the times given South Kanara’s infamous frequent long power cuts) she had to draw water from the well in a steel/brass pot and carry it to the bathroom rain/sun. I never heard my Ajja or Ajji complaining about how many times they had to refill or refuel. Our shortcut in the instant gratification era – turn the knob to hot water setting!!
Coming to the main point – bathing the babies. Most traditional households prefer to use an ayurvedic ruby coloured oil (तांब्डे पाळा तेल) over Johnsons baby oil for massaging the baby. This oil is prepared by boiling red roots in coconut oil and stored in a container. After a quick vigorous massage, the baby is given a hot water bath and towel dried. The baby is then dabbed with baby powder before dressing up and putting to sleep.
Check out Tette ragadi and Udda ghaal