A soap called PEARS

I still bathe with a bar of Pears soap. In between I did try out different soaps but finally have come to the conclusion that there is no soap better than Pears! It may not be the best soap in the world but for me it brings back fragrant memories of a lost childhood. Those innocent happy days in my birthplace, Alathur. Reared by many hands, from grandfather to grandmother to grand uncles and grand aunts to aunts and uncles to …

Well, I believe you do get the picture? My childhood was a game called “ Pass the parcel”. It just happened that I WAS the PARCEL!!!

Am not complaining, mind you. In fact, contrary to popular belief, I had a very happy and interesting childhood. I will only talk of the happy stuff right now. [The interesting stuff will come later. There is an ocean full of it!!!]

I still remember my grandpa bringing chocolates and other delicious stuff from Palghat. He even got a pair of kittens once when he returned from Ooty! I can still remember the way he used to eat. He was so precise in his movements. And he had great taste buds.

I have no idea if my grandma was a good cook. Mema [grand aunt] supervised the kitchen. She is the most innocent, naïve woman I have ever seen in my life. She did have her good failings though. In every generation of children growing up in “ Leela Mandir”, she had one “Chosen one”, who would be her favorite. And she would be blatantly open of her feelings for that person.

And in Kesava mama’s reign there, I lived like a prince. Elephant rides to a film every Sunday to “soda sherbet” in the evenings to him dancing to all my wishes and fancies!! [You may get the idea that they were spoiling me rotten! Well, there was a reason why so much of kindness was being showered on me but then that’s another story altogether.]

The clearest memory I have of using Pears is during this time. When I was seven years or so. There is a faint memory from a period prior to this too but….am not sure. I used to look through that dark brown bar and feel at peace. [In fact, lately the company that owns this brand came out with an advertisement in which a little girl does the same thing!]

Years later, in Pune, I remember Shabnam buying me a Pears soap. She paid for it saying that as she was the sponsor of my stay in Pune, she’ll pay for it. [My dirty mind wanted to ask her whether she would pay for my condoms too!!!]

She is the only womanly memory I associate with Pears. That is if I put aside the number of female hands that has bathed me as a child.

The other soaps may wash the dirt off my body but Pears somehow washes away my guilt. My guilt of being an adult in a degenerating world. Strange but true. I feel like a child again.