DesiPundit

Dipali at of this and that has a lovely post on disappearing words as our homes change. Some rooms more obsolete, some concepts done away with.

In my earliest childhood, staying at my aunt’s house meant many interesting procedures: after visiting the toilet-in-the-corner-of-the-courtyard, you had to wash your hands with mud, and then with soap. If there was no one around to open the tap for you, you would use the inside of both wrists to manoeuvre the tap open, not touching it with either palm or fingertips. After thoroughly rinsing off the mud, you were supposed to wash your hands again with Lifebuoy. Lifebuoy in those days was a carbolic soap with a peculiar, supposedly hygienic smell.