THE SOAP DISH Dearfriends,
Mostserials coming in TV are told as soaps and as such our TV itself is a soap dish.Here the word soap is used for soap opera. Yesterdaythere was a call from my brother’s son and while referring to recent floods inthe home river in Kerala, he reminded me of the missing new soap dish in theriver step and we together searched for the same at that time. It reminded meto write about soap dish. Hope an interesting reading. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 8-11-2021 This posting is an edited version of oneposted on 20-12-2011 1. Soap box and soap dish Thoughwe colloquially say soapbox for the container of soap, the correct word is soap dish. Soap boxmeans a box used as a makeshift stand for public speaking. 1. Soap dish and towel- identification. Onthose days of most took bath in rivers and ponds. Till the end of my collegedays I took bath only in the nearby river. Bath rooms were there close to welland water was taken from well in buckets to bathroom for very elderly people’susage. Persons going for bath wereidentified seeing the towel in shoulderor in arm and soap dish. Some used to keep towel and soap dish in a plasticbucket along with clothes for washing. Some took tooth brush, tongue cleaneralso in the bucket. Normallysoap dishes were kept on the granite steps called “Padavu” one foot above waterlevel. Soap was applied standing in water or in the step after wetting body. Itwas ensured the soap is kept back in the soap dish after application. Normally people would first apply soap in legsand waist area, and have a dip. Then on the upper portions of the body and adip and finally on head and a face and a clean dip. The soaps had aninstruction to wait for at least two minutes after application and beforewashing off to remove dirt. Most spent that time talking to others taking bath. 2. Types of soap dish. Thesoap dishes were in plastic or stainless steel. The glittering soap dish instainless steel was very common. In early times, the plastic soap dishes usedto break on falling being pure plastic, but after adding PVC this feature ofbreaking was not there. Thecover of the metal soap dish was fitted mostly with small hinges to bottom of soapdish in a fitting closure manner. In Plastic either it was fitted or not fitted,but the top covered bottom with grip. Someafter opening soap dish used to keep the cover under the bottom part. The outercover perfectly fitted in this fashion also. 3. Size of soap dish. Normallypeople used to purchase soap dish slightly bigger than the size of soap. Thisfacilitated easy handling. Some people preferred to keep washing soap also insoap dish. Hence large soap dishes were there to accommodate them. Itwas also usual to keep scrubber in the soap dish, to scrub the body afterapplying soap. Soaps like sunlight, Life buoys etc. were bigger in size, andnormally it was cut in to two before use on those days. Some shops used to cutto half and sell them. Similarly washing soap used to come as bar.About 1” there used to be marks, through which it was cut and used. Shopsmostly sold bar soap by cutting since most did not want the full bar. Nowsize of soaps is identical, small, medium and large by all companies. We can see thesmaller size bath soap provided in standard lodgings. Rest houses and resortsmay have liquid soaps and sponges. Differentsizes of soap dishes in quality fibre boxes and metal soap dishes are stillthere. Present day bath rooms have excellent provisions for keeping items like soap dishes, bath roomcleaning liquids, liquid detergents etc. 4. Exchanging soap dish. Onthose days there were only two or three soap dishes, and the family members exchangedthem. So persons taking bath late might collect the soap dish on the returnpath of the first, or the first group may wait in bathing ghat for giving thesoap dish to them. No hygiene problem was felt or thought on those days amongfamily members. Nowall members of the family have individual soap dishes and soaps. If the familyis small, separate bathrooms also. 5. Missing soap dish Whileinterestingly talking and taking bath, it was quite common to forget the soap dishon return. After recollecting and going, many times the soap dish might be there,sometimes missing. If the soap dishes were new and quality ones, missing wascommon on those days. People worried – new soap and new dish lost. On thosedays the cost of soap and soap dish was big to people. Nobody could think- Letit go. Thoughbathing ghats in rivers and ponds are stillthere, people using have become lesser. Maintenance is also not good. 5a. Missing soap dish at Tirupathi. Itis told, if we miss anything at Tirupathi temple it is for the good. I visitedTirupathi when my son was one year old and had tonsure. What to say- Afterreturn it is found stain less steel soap dish was left there after bathing my son.There was all round improvement also. A new one was purchased 6. Soap container modification. Thefirst modification was to have small legs to the bottom container for about 3mm height, then perforation for water from might to drain through theseopenings. Ceramicsoap dishes appeared as bath room fixtures, but got no popularity. 7. Sponge in soap dish Whensponge became common, it was a practice to cut sponge to the size of soap dishand place in the bottom container. However it gained no popularity. 8. Soap dish designed for bath room. Latersoap dishes designed for bath room started to appear. It had provision to keeptwo soaps, some scrubber, washing soap, and could fit on the wall of the bathroom. I found it in Delhi during 1990’s and purchased and fitted in my bathroom of the quarters. It is still there with me in my Indian style bath roomgiving nostalgic memories. 9. Soap dish cleaning Becauseof the sticking of soap in the dishes, periodical cleaning is a must of thesoap dish to give new look. Putting in hot water and using cloth to scrub thebits, the soap dish might appear new. Now bath soaps are provided near sinks andwash basins. Especially in the covid 19 periods, hand washing is necessary at least 15 times a day.Though the effect of covid is much reduced in Chennai where I stay now,still precautions are necessary. Though liquid soaps, and sanitizers are there,most effective is washing with solid soap. 10. Liquid soaps Liquidsoap comes in container and do not require soap dish. But in general it couldleast affect the popular attractive soap dish. 11. Soap company soap dishes. Somemanufactures of soaps like Pears used to give soap dish to the oval size ofsoap. However this did not gain popularity since most people change soaps oftenon seeing new ones. Sopresent day, large soaps come with soap dishes, so that it can be used to keepall types of soaps. 12. Attraction of soap dish. Whileappearing in attractive colours and designs, most like to purchase new soap dish.Old ones are put to dustbin. Present day, there would be rare homes having usingold soap dish. 13. Today scenario Todaywash basins, and all bath rooms have bathing soaps, soap dishes per individual.Guests have separate bathroom in most homes, kept fresh will all amenities andappear good than other bathrooms. Provisionis made for soap dishes and other items in corner shelves and wall shelves madein the bath room. The soaps are used mostly to ¾ sizes and when it is foundslightly difficult to hold or slipping, simply put to waste box. Washbasins are provided with brand new soaps, while guests arrive. Their use isless, but thrown out periodically. 14. Closing soap dish. Toavoid bacterial infection and not to lose the fragrance, most keep the soap dishclosed. It is opened only when, a person enters for bath. Theprovision of washing soap has almost lost its position with soap powder/liquid washingsoaps/detergents. All soap companies now produce liquid washing soap thanpowder. It is told by technicians, corrosion of steel parts occur due to usingof powder in automatic washing machines. Solid soap is mostly used to remove dirtnot got removed by washing powder or liquid. 15. Kitchen provision Inthe work area, we provide in soap dish fitting the good bath soap and towel.With covid 19, liquid soap and separate towel for the servants if employed. Separatetowels and soap is provided for the people in the home who clean items afterservants have gone. In my home I ensure the oven is cleaned well, vessels inthe sink are cleaned once and kept for servant’s full cleaning, before I go tosleep, if not done by my wife. In the morning when we open the kitchen itshould be clean. Somehow when work area was designed, I desired a soap dish standand a fitting for towel. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/6129083.1172936.1636366250005%40mail.yahoo.com.
