SPARE THE ROD

 

Millennials would possibly not be familiar with the once ubiquitous Immersion rods, which were found in all middle class households without exception. May be they should have called it an immersion “coil”, wonder why??A misnomer obviously, because while it was immersed alright but it was actually a coil with two identical symmetrical rods at either end to complete the electrical circuit.

Come winters and they would make their appearance in the ‘bathrooms’, as they were referred to then, as against the more sophisticated ‘wash rooms’ of today. Geysers were a luxury which few could afford and even if one was rich enough, there would be just one which would hardly suffice for a large family, especially in the early morning hours when there was a rush for schools and offices. So immersion rods filled in, they saved many a soul from the bouts of flu, providing the much needed succour in the form of warm water for the bath during winters. 

 The arrangements were unique with a bucket of water which was invariably of plastic material, so there had to be a non-conducting material such as a wooden stick which would be placed on top of the bucket, from which the immersion rod would be ‘sentenced to be hanged’ till the water in the bucket reached the boiling point. The point to be borne in mind was the level of water in the bucket, which had to be adequate for the rod to be dipped in, if it was too less the rod would get damaged, if brimmed over, then water may seep in to the plastic holder, and may end up short circuiting resulting in an electricity outage thus inviting curses from everyone. This elaborate arrangement resulted in the luxurious bath with some cold water mixed for the optimum temperature to be arrived at, for accomplishment of the task at hand. Obviously showers were a luxury which could be enjoyed only during summer months, when availability of water was suspect and any extra consumption invited not just angry glances but downright slaps for being selfish.

Of course there were the brave ones, who were indoctrinated into Buddhism in their previous births, who could courageously pour mugs of cold water over themselves, indifferent to pleasures and pain, “sceptics”. In RIMC although we had geysers, we never saw them functional, I don’t know if it was the doing of MES or our own Administrative Officer who wanted us toughened up. Dehradun winters are severe and after a gruelling 30 minutes of Physical Training, one had no choice but to bathe…there were exceptions here too, who would be generous with their consumption of talcum powder to suppress the sweaty stink. Most of us would make a bee line for the copper contraption (bamba) which guzzled wood and coal to give out a few miserly buckets of hot water.

The seniority counted and we had to await our turn, at times getting just the psychological warmth in the water which poured over our shivering bodies. But obviously felt a lot fresher and hungry. Water was precious, hot water more so....

We realised the value of water rather early in life. No wonder, in later years with strict rationing of water during our exercises and operational alerts, the hard scale of five litres per man could be endured with a couple of drops conserved for the dehydrated friends.