The Shower - January 28

Okay, for all of you who said you could not do this part of the experience, I finally broke down and took a “shower” – had done sponge baths up until now. One of the photos shows the whole bathroom – note the shower head near the top of the photo. Oh, was I excited – do we actually have a hot shower in our room? No such luck – yes water dribbles out – but it is freezing cold. Might be nice if it were summer, but not now.

So, look at the other photo – there is my very own (shared with Molly) western toilet – I rated one because of my knees. Thank you, knees. In front are the 2 buckets and the 2 little pitchers. I took one bucket down the hall, down one flight of stairs, to an area with 3 faucets – one of which has very, very hot water. I filled the bucket about 1/3 full, brought it back upstairs to my bathroom, and added cold water from the spigot on the wall. Then, with great courage, I got undressed. It was so cold in the room (so cold that I slept in my zipped-up jacket inside my sleeping bag last night) that it did indeed take courage. I poured a full pitcher over my head, shampooed, then poured the rest over me. A little soap, another rinse and, voila, I was squeaky clean. The water runs into a drain in the floor – you can see it in the photo. When I opened the door I realized that the hot water vapor had made the bathroom several degrees warmer than my bedroom so grabbed my clothes and dressed there. Then I took the squeegee and pushed all the excess water down the drain. The process is simple – it is just the incredibly cold air that makes it so daunting. When the weather warms up I suspect it will become quite easy.

So, those of you who are going to join me in solidarity, get a 3-gallon bucket and a small pitcher and you too can shower the Ashram way. Keep it up until I leave the Ashram. I suspect the shower in the Delhi hotel is going to look awfully good when I get there on March 24.