The Bubble Bath

As told by - The bathtub

The bubble baths made so famous by the early Hollywood heroines have withstood the test of time and remains all time favorites till date. Seeing a well coiffured blond languishing in the tub full of bubbles in one of the movies his parents took him to, Purja couldn’t help but wonder at the dumbness of the woman. Singing song while rubbing ones arm with an insipid sponge was not his idea of fun. He felt cheated. What a waste of all those wonderful bubbles. He had a better idea.

Most of the Indian homes of the early nineteenth century had functional no nonsense simple baths of tap and bucket variety with some soap and mustard oil thrown in. The children would sit in the water filled buckets, splashing water on each other, eating mangoes or blowing soap bubbles thereby beating summer heat. But our Purja was uncommonly lucky. There was a big black marble bathtub in his parent’s bathroom that he was allowed to use once in a while. This tub was central to the above- mentioned idea.

“Finding the household free of motherly presence due to some function at a neighbor’s home, Purja decided to test his idea. As his mother hurried out of the house, he asked for the permission to use her bathtub. This was a strategic move –what with her mind occupied and no time to spare, she was more likely to say yes to somewhat legitimate though potentially volatile demands. Purja knew the buttered side well hence timed such controversial pleas at a precise moment of parental hurried departure. His mother, under normal circumstances would never have given the permission especially after flooding of her room the last time Purja had used the tub. She was in for a surprise again.”

“Why? Did he flood it again?” Camcorder couldn’t reconcile to the fact that all this never got recorded.

“Patience my friend. You won’t be disappointed. Well, not wanting to waste even a second of his bathing freedom, our little friend stripped to his underpants immediately and ran to his mom’s bathroom. He turned on the tap to fill the tub adding a generous dose of fragrant bath salts. Now all he needed were bubbles of Hollywood variety. He let a new bar of soap almost melt in the water without satisfactory results. Letting his brain sieve through the various options, he put in some solid thought and came up with a winner. Why not use a shampoo? He reached up to the bathroom cabinet and found a new bottle of Gleem shampoo, a special favorite of his mother. Unscrewing the top, he poured some under the running tap in the tub. Hollywoodian bubbles appeared almost immediately in front of his widened eyes. Purja was pleased beyond words and thought a little more shampoo would make his bubble bath spectacular. But the bottle had other plans. It slipped through his soapy hands into the water, gargling all its contents in the tub before Purja could retrieve it. Bubbles invaded the bathroom then as Purja tried to turn off the tap, unsuccessfully, with soapy and slippery hands. The bubbles rose unimpeded, overtaking the surrounding areas before slathering onto the floor and out into the bedroom. Purja slipped out in panic, literally, calling for help. Sesa stood horrified enable to blink her eyes or close her mouth. She wanted to speak but all she could manage was a cross between a sigh and a shriek. The Hollywood story had gone astray. It took hours of much mumbled- about how fashionable mothers leave their innocent boys to be looked after by gullible others - cleaning by his nanny before the bathtub stopped spewing more bubbles. Of course, the toilet, the bedroom and every thing in the bubbly vicinity retained a strong shampooish fragrance along with squeaky- clean surface so vocally advertised by the shampoo manufacturers. Luckily for Purja, his mom was in good mood when she came home having received many compliments on her new sari and her looks that she did not explode the way she normally did. And of course it was just as well, that over powering wall of bubbles was cleaned by a nanny rather partial to our friend. She always minimized the actual magnitude of the calamity.”

“You mean his mom never found out?” Inquired the laptop. It had to get the details right.

“Yes she did, most decidedly about two days later. Having applied a generous dose of oil onto her scalp for that extra soft and wholesome effect to hair, she looked for her favorite bottle of shampoo to wash it for a formal party in the evening. She did find it in the cabinet though, bereft of its contents. Once again Purja sat in his corner. I am sure though, she never ever guessed or imagined the extent of bubbly calamity she was lucky enough to miss. For once he got off lightly. And from then on blew soap bubbles in the bucket only.” Concluded the bathtub.