SOAP DISH AND SOAP Recently Tamilnadu Governmentissued a bag with 14 items or so through ration shops FREE, and two among them were bath soap and washingsoap. Round bath soap of 1 cm height and 5 cm diameter with simple cover.Though no fragrance still it is found good for bathing. Today bathing with that soap, I thought today’sposting can be about soap and soap dish. Soap box has a different meaning, though wecommonly say so colloquially.
Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan9-7-2021 1. No advertisement required for lifebuoy soap Till my middleschool days there were only three standard soaps. Life buoy toilet soap,Sunlight washing soap and Lux toilet soap. Lux soap was more costly. On seeingadvertisements in papers as boys we used to say- Somehow we are going topurchase the soap. Why waste of money on advertisement? All soaps were from Hindustanlever, now it has become Unilever. Sunlight soap camein yellow colour, Lifebuoy light red and Lux with fragrance in while colour.Later it started appearing in many colours. Sunlight and Lifebuoy soaps were ofthe same size but big in size, it was cut to two pieces and used. The soap dishcarried both items while going to river for bath. Many homes had onlytwo soap dishes, one for men and another for women. If one person has taken soap dish for bath, ifanother wanted it, he would go in the return path of the first. Practicallycertain path was there for going to river ghat and return. On those days it wasnever felt how the soap used by one can be used by other. Affordability was lesswith most people. Not only soaps, bathing towels were also common. However onefamily did not use another family’s item, whatever is the closeness. Sunlight soappowder for washing silk garments was available along with soaps. Update- Now there are many other companies andunilever is competing with them. Sunlight soap became bar, now liquid. Now advertisements are coming with thequality of sunlight soap, not fading colour, removes stains and quantityrequired is very less etc. One would have no mind to throw away the container.So nice to look. But what to do? How many one can keep? Lifebuoy becamesmaller in size, but still light red colour. Now the soap comes in attractivecovering. Hand washing liquid and sanitizer also have come now. Regarding soapdish, earlier plastic, and later appearing of stainless steel soap boxes, theywere very common. 2. Introduction of chandrika and Mysore sandal Chandrika soapfirst introduced in Kerala and later to Tamilnadu and other states. While I wasin high school day’s chandrika, was more common than Life buoy. Chandrika gavemuch more lather than Lifebuoy. For hard water of Tamilnadu, it became morepopular in Tamilnadu than Kerala. Even scarcity was felt for Chandrika. Mysore sandal wasvery costly but still some started purchasing them. Some localcompanies started making toilet soaps, but could not gain market because of competitionfrom major companies. Update- Now Chandrika also started makingsandal soaps, aloe Vera soaps, transparent soaps and hand washing liquid. At leastfive times in an hour chandrika advertisement comes in TV, advertising the useof coconut oil MOREin production than in other soaps. Animal fat is less. 3. Appearance ofmore washing soaps and toilet soaps By 1964’s therewere many toilet soaps and washing soaps and Tata oil mills from Bombay startedtheir production. Godrej No1. Sinthal,Medi mix, Margo, Pears etc. came to market. Pears was oval, and not affordableto ordinary persons. All these soaps are still in market. Kerala sandal came,but production stopped for some time, now production is there. Instead of plastic, PVC and fibre soap dishes in attractivecolours and models appeared. 4. RIN, DET Washing detergents At one time washingmachines were not known, Rin and Det were introduced. Both were competing. Suddenly,Det disappeared. The play was by RIN. RIN was very common detergent for washingfor many years. 5. Introduction of washing machines First semi-automaticwithout drier, then semi-automatic with drier started appearing. In Trivandrumwashing machines became common by 1991’s. I purchased my semi-automatic washingmachine in 1993. Full automatic was not known. Along with washingmachine soap powder started appearing from surf, aerial, sunlight etc. Surf andaerial were competing, now aerial has more market. In fact when semi-automaticwashing machine appeared, nobody thought of the automatic. That itself was big relief. Only thing washing required morewater comparing to hand washing in bathrooms or river. Soap powder startedappearing as granules. 7. Soaps and soaps One would wonderwhich soap can be purchased or tried now. There are number of types of toiletsoaps. Most soap are of approximately same priced. There are sandal wood,transparent, aloe Vera soaps from Chandrika itself, Soaps like Dove has becomemore preferred among women. There are soaps like Hamam, Rexona, Liril etc. withtheir special fragrance. 8. Automatic washing machine With different makesof automatic washing machines, semi-automatic sales became low, but still arethere. Washing powders for front load and top load came, now washing liquidshave come from aerial, surf, sunlight , rin etc. companies. All are good, someare better. Most have bath inhomes. Except famous river ghats, other river ghats are barren. Now everyperson has individual bath soap and soap dish. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/2084778494.179960.1625817162361%40mail.yahoo.com.
