Shower of blessings

Inside this room, inhibitions, and pretences vanish you are you and no one else.

The lovable cartoon character Dennis the Menace was once shown asking his mother, “Why do I have to take a bath only to get dirty again?” Inexorable logic, you will agree, but it hardly nullifies the widespread notion that cleanliness is next to godliness. Devout Hindus believe that a dip in a holy river can wash away sins. Other religions too hold that physical cleansing can bring us closer to the divine and promote peace.

If this idea had substance, then we would indeed be a godly nation, but a recent report belies this with the following verdict. ‘India ranks low at 141st place in the global peace index’. This makes it less peaceful than countries like Serbia, Burundi and Burkino Faso. Is having a bath then, as Dennis implies, just a fetish?

Bathing is perhaps an early habit engendered in the womb. For every one of us, life begins with a nine-month bath in body temperature fluid. From the Paleolithic age to the present day, humans have found bathing a pleasurable experience. Whether it is a shower or a bucket bath, thorough cleansing can wash away the weariness that work and stress bring.

Hot water acts like a massage and cold water brings a tingle and leaves you rejuvenated. Understandably, the first venues for this refreshing exercise were rivers and lakes. The inventive genius of man then created communal baths catering to the needs of the rich and the poor.

But soon sophistication went a little further and thus came into being the cosy, little retreat in one’s own home called the bathroom. It converted bathing into a very personal, intimate and solitary ritual. It gives us all what is best described as ‘me-time’. Inside this room, all inhibitions, all pretences vanish – you are you and no one else.

Using the inimitable words of Keats, it is here that we “quite forget the wea-riness, the fever and the fret” that is so much a part of this workaday world.  Within these four walls are born bathroom singers and bathroom thinkers. While singing may irk others, thinking has its uses. There is a certain magic in the gentle flow of water. It allows your mind to defocus; irritations melt away and the brain is now free to roam and pick up fresh new insights. It is a time for recovery as well as discovery.

Scientific studies have shown that there is an increase in dopamine flow, which puts the mind in a meditative and creative mode. You could be hit by intuitive flashes and sudden answers to vexing problems. No wonder then that Archimedes of the ‘eureka’ fame discovered an important law in physics while immersed in a tubful of warm water. Modern science has even given this process a name – ‘default mode network.’

This simple sanitary process has, in fact, a deeper meaning. Dennis was more than a little off the mark. Cleanliness may not be godliness, but a bath is certainly a shower of blessings!