This picture and the purpose of this product reminds me of a particular incident that almost made me an enemy with my
husband's friend and his family. Well my husband's friend and his wife are
American citizens and were on an Indian vacation to visit their family and friends. So, we went to meet the couple and their 1 year old son in
Delhi. Both the men are quite
good friends, so we were staying in their home; and as per the plan we were supposed to stay at their house in Delhi for a day and then travel with them to their parent's home in a village in
Patiala's outskirts. I had attended the couple's wedding and before that I had met the husband once a long time ago. So, literally speaking, I had never interacted with the wife anytime before in my life. So, after both the men were busy catching up with each other, we women got into an attempt to know each other. She turned out to be a fine lady, and it was a nice conversation that we both were indulging in, till we got interrupted with their toddler's cries in the middle of our conversation. The young mother apologized to me and rushed towards her kid. Her gesture made me respect the American politeness; cause in my country a mother is not expected to apologize to their guests for leaving a conversation in the middle to attend to their crying babies. But as an Indian, I also know that I am expected to help a lady in distress, well her kid had just crapped, so that situation made her a damsel in distress. And I forgot to mention that it was 1 am, and the lady was also tired of the jet-lag and over it she had guests to entertain and to follow up all with a 5 hour journey the following day. I watched the entire cleaning up activity with attention since I knew I would be required to do the same stuff in few years from then. I saw how the lady wiped and cleaned up the baby giving attention to all the details with the help of a wet tissue wipe. I was pretty impressed with her meticulousness in maintaining the hygiene. The baby by then had stopped crying and was trying to catch on his sleep. She then got hold of some bottle and poured some liquid out of it on her palms and rubbed her entire
hands with it. Watching her do this, I though she would then apply the same stuff to her baby, but she just did not. Then I thought she would go to the washroom and would wash her hands with soap and water. But she did not do that either, rather she asked me if I needed anything to eat. And I was like EAT!!! I asked her if she would like to wash her hands; I thought she was fatigued and probably forgot about it, giving her the benefit of doubt. But no, I was all wrong; she was all done by just spreading that liquid on her hands. And she was again back to the
question that she asked me, "would you like to eat something??" And I was like blank for a moment. I was feeling so dirty and unhygienic; and once again I was thankful to the American politeness, thank goodness that the lady asked me before serving anything with her OWN HANDS.
I promptly declined the offer; I think she got a hint to what was going on in my mind. We were still not a leveled camaraderie, so she showed the same bottle to me and made me read the instructions on the bottle. "NO
SOAP, NO WATER REQUIRED" was kind of shouting on the bottle along with "NATURALLY CLEAN AND PROTECTED HANDS." But somehow I was not ready to buy on that one.
I simply smiled through my nose and bid her a good night, while maintaining to avoid a body contact with her. LOL
The next morning all of us were behaving very formal with each other. Since I had updated my husband on the ultra American hygiene ways of our hosts', he was also a little comfortable. Thankfully, he is better than me in acting so he was the one keeping the decorum between all of us while we were taking a road ride to Patiala. Since both of us avoided taking a breakfast and even tea at their place in the morning, it was clear between all of us that the "HAND GEL" was playing the villain between us all. Also, both I and my husband are complete tea addicts so we urged the driver to halt by a road-side dhaba so that we can gulp on our cuppa of happiness. And watching bhajias hot and freshly made, I could not resist munching on them too. While we were spending time outside the car, the
Indian Americans were inside the car with their window glasses rolled, since they cannot breathe in the unhygienic dust of the country side.
We were welcomed to the car back with the raging eyes of the lady, and she could not stop herself from commenting "Oh..these dhabas are so unhygienic, I feel like throwing up by just looking at them, do not know where all the hands of the cooks and servers must have reached before they touch the food that people eat over here." I looked at my husband and he was looking elsewhere, I thought of looking to her husband for some help, but he was also looking elsewhere. I found nobody to my side, but thank God the driver bailed me out. He simply reverted to the American lady's rebuke by saying, "No mam, these guys are good people, they always wash their hands with soap and water. I know it, because my relatives work over here." And the moment the driver finished his statement, there I was laughing away to glory, I just could not control my laughter at that particular moment.
As obvious it was, the entire 2-3 hours of journey was spent in mute mode. Luckily we reached our destination and I was re-united to folks who were like me. I had never met those in person, but we were alike in many ways. Like we all danced, ate, and applied henna on our soap and water washed hands...LOL
