I have always been fascinated by baths. Even at an early age, Archimedes' bath tub attracted me more than his theories of density and volume or his exclamations of 'eureka' or his running-around-town-naked antics. I have had a lot of ideas about building my dream house and one of the main areas where I employed my creativity most is probably the bathroom! I was and still am enchanted by bathtubs, and decided that my spacious bathroom in my dream house would have a luxurious bathtub with a flat screen TV on its front and and an adequately sized mirror on its side. Whenever I drive in the horrid afternoon heat of Chennai, I would imagine myself in that bathtub, well placed amidst sweet smelling herbs and soft lather and watching my favourite comedy shows or a fine game of football. Of course, when I get bored with the TV, I would amuse myself with the mirror, making Mohawk hairstyles with shampoo foam and Mafia hairstyles with my hair perfectly wet and obeying me on all things. And I might also try submerging myself into the tub, holding my breath and counting to a hundred. While I'm at it, I might also write down my thoughts in a waterproof notepad with a waterproof pen like the Japanese, for I find myself bursting with ideas when I take a shower. The idea of writing this post itself came to me when I was taking shower 20 minutes ago.
The shower here in Newcastle has a scale of 1-9 to choose from which corresponds to the water temperature. I always start with six and a half, which is comfortably warm and end in 2 which is quite cold. In India, I never felt the need for different temperatures as the climate is always hot and a cold shower is very refreshing, if one can overcome the first few seconds of discomfort when the cold water sweeps through the body. But here, a warm shower after reaching home or a cold shower after a work out or a mixed shower in the mornings is simply wonderful. Starting with warm water and slowly reducing the temperature, one point in scale at a time and lingering there for a few minutes before changing the temperature again is a fantastic, almost spiritual experience.
So now, with this kind of a shower also capturing my heart, it seems that I must widen the space of my already spacious dream bathroom. Then there is also my dream swimming pool, with a simple design but with broad steps like those public baths of Harappa or the ponds of temples in India, with probably a kid's pool on the side and may be a jacuzzi, a lawn and a barbecue space (please remember that this is me in a dream about my dream house living my dream life :)). I could go on adding supplementaries to this set up but I'm afraid of exhausting all my imaginative talent in the bathroom and having nothing left for the bedrooom! Already, I get the feeling that its not a bathroom that I'm planning in my house but a house inside my bathroom! So stopping my dreaming and jabbering here, ever so unwillingly, I bid you guys a showery goodbye!
