Hot water Luxury!!!

Damn !!! This Power Cut !!!! Why should the power go now ???? Its 8am in the morning and I need to get ready.  Water is quite chill during mornings, now. 

OH !! God !!! What to do ???  I can’t use the Water Geyser, now !!!! 🙄 

After venting out quite a bit about the electricity department, their inefficient ways of functioning, non-intimation of the timings of power cuts and so many related things, I felt much better. 

Then came the realisation that the time is flying and I need hot water. So, I fill up a vessel with water and put it on the gas stove. While the water was heating, my mind went on a nostalgic journey, back in time. 

I very well remember the winter vacations spent in my maternal grandfather’s house. Because of so much open space around, the chillness was quite high those days, compared to now.  And there were about 10 ppl in the house, including me and we all need hot water for a bath.  Its actually a difficult job and will be allotted to everyone in the family in turns.  Why is this job difficult ??? 

Just have a look at this picture.  

We’ve to light a fire of logs and fill in the big copper pot and keep it on this fire stove.  After the water is heated, take out the required hot water onto a bucket and fill in the pot again.  All the while, have an eye on the fire.  It might get off, if water spills while pouring into the pot.  And my grandfather was very particular on how we ignite the fire, maintain the same amount of heat without wasting a lot of fuel ie. logs of wood.  And not to forget the burning of eyes, due to the smoke.  In the end of all this turmoil, the hot water was indeed a luxury. 

It was an entirely different scenario in my paternal grandfather’s house, which is mine, too. We all stayed together. And this is what we used for heating water during the cold winter days. 

 

  

 As you can see, there is a cup like thing on top of this boiler.  Its actually the entrance to the cylindrical pipe, into which we need to put in the fuel for fire.  Water is filled around this cylindrical pipe and after heating, the tap is used to take the hot water.  The main fuel used for boiling water was cow dung cakes and sticks and broken branches.  Actually we knew of a carpenter, my grandfather’s friend, who will send home all the wooden waste he has in his workshop.  My grandfather will sit on a wooden stool, next to this boiler and supervise the entire show of filling cold water and taking hot water.  His main job was to put in the cow dung cakes, when required into the cylindrical pipe. 

This was also no less difficult than the previous one. Burning of eyes due to smoke was there in this too.  The ashes need to be cleaned periodically from the base of the cylindrical pipe.  Otherwise, the fire won’t be enough to heat the water.  At the end of the copper water boiler, hot water was indeed a luxury. 

BTW, I want to ask you all, have you had a bath with the water from a hand-drawn well ????? 

 

  

If you’ve not, you’ve missed some wonderful thing in life. We had a well in the backyard of our house and believe me, that it will get filled to the brim during rainy season.  You can take water from it, like a bucket !!! It was the most wonderful thing to do.  The most interesting thing is, during summers the water is chill and refreshing, to cool ourselves.  And during winters, its quite warm and nice.  Such is the beauty of nature !!!! 

And to have a bath out of the well, is indeed a luxury. 

The sudden noise from the TV brought me back to the present world. And suddenly I realise that the power has come and I hurriedly run to switch on the Geyser, to have that wonderful hot water bath. 

No logs of wood are used, no cowdung cakes either and neither did I draw water from the well. 

Isn’t this hot water from the Geyser a luxury, now ????!!