Ye olde vanishing cream

Since it will do no good to dwell on the shame and remorse of neglecting my blog for so long, the old spilt milk and what not, I shall dive headlong into a review.

We come back to to good old Vicco.

I am familiar, and very happy, with 3 products from the Vicco stables: Vicco tooth paste which is excellent in dental maintenance but a little expensive (I use Dabur Red), Vicco tooth powder that my MIL swears by, and is considered wholly responsible for the intact set of gleaming teeth that my grandfather was the proud owner of till he died at 80, and the mysteriously labelled Vicco turmeric cream with foam base - an excellent face wash, read my review here.

For the past week, I have been using Vicco turmeric cream, and I cannot figure out what took me so long to try out this old familiar on the store shelves.

There are two variants of this cream: Vicco turmeric cream, and Vicco turmeric WSO cream. On a whim I picked up the latter, although I had no idea what WSO meant. I found out later on the interwebz that WSo simply means "without sandal oil". Huh? (Dear Vicco. What's with unexplained acronyms on your product label? Are you trying NOT to sell your product? On that note, please remove the scary man picture from your foam base product. And tell us on the box what that product is for.)

Vicco face cream is an old fashioned "vanishing cream" - opaque with a pearly sheen, disappearing into the skin quickly, leaving behind a smooth, light weight, non-greasy feel. The cream claims therapeutic value, and i am inclined to believe this because in the past week, my complexion is starting to even out, and small spots and discolourations are fading away.

Vicco turmeric cream may be "nahi cosmetic", but the product does have cosmetic value. Being non-greasy and light weight, you could very well wear it by itself before stepping out. The cream instantly brightens appearance, and being opaque, it should have some sun protection ability though it doesn't say so on the box.

As a bonus, the smooth matte finish this leaves behind means that you could very well use it as a primer over which to build layers of make-up, if you were so inclined. For the uninitiated, primers are creams designed to leave a smooth surface on the skin, over which other make-up stuff like foundation spreads and sits better. Vicco makes a great primer at less than 15% of the cost (L'oreal Base Magique primer = Rs 800+, a tube of Vicco = Rs.50), and a fraction, if at all, of the chemical load. (Disclaimer: primers are usually made of silicone which is supposed to be inert on the skin, but whatever).

For instance, for a no make-up look, moisturize, apply vicco (WSO if you are like me), dust some pressed powder on the oily zones and step out. For a dewy finish / warm lights and photo op, throw on a highlighter. Or a blush and a highlighter. or go all the way with concealer/foundation and the works.

Full disclosure: I have oily / combination skin that usually doesn't need heavy moisturizing, but if you have dry skin, you may need to moisturize before you use this product. Vicco isn't drying, but as a non-greasy cream, I wouldn't expect it to do much for dryness.

I am now also testing the original "with sandal oil" version (what would the acronym for that be, geniuses at Vicco?), and although this cream clearly has an oil base, it vanishes into the skin too, leaving no grease behind. I am impressed. Will know soon if it breaks me out.

All in all, this is a great product that offers great value. Low priced, time-tested, seemingly therapeutic, and a great skin-friendly cosmetic that works as a primer and ought to work as a light-to-moderate sun block.

How really really...

really, really quite so very long since I wrote here! Was worried that this blog might join that shamefully long list of orphan blogs created, then abandoned by yours truly.

I am back, I am, really, and I shall stay.

Let us get to work. The past six or eight months have seen me doing, in chronological order, the following:

1. July - Stumbled and fell face-first into marma treatment involving a 20-day extreme fast (relieved me of my chronic joint problems, but also, temporarily, of any interest in life)

2. August - dive holiday in the islands

3.  September - Quiet introspection, finishing touches on poor David's posters promised back in february

4. October - out-of-control annual vacation in goa followed by weeks of hypochondria and frantic detox

5. November - Stumbled and fell face first into full-time employment

6. December - gym, sensible eating, semblance of control, not regretting work. Actually enjoying it.

Ho-hum.

Improving shampoo even more

Read my earlier post here and here.

For absolutely the ultimate conditioning effect, use castor oil with Halo shampoo (or any basic low-cost shampoo from a known manufacturer).

I am not going to lie to you - the mix smells a bit like castor oil. Well, castor oil and shampoo fragrances. But it is not bad - it is the kind of natural, earthy fragrance that would smell expensive if sniffed from a small vial in a tiny air-conditioned organic products store à la Auro-boutique.

The important thing is, this mix provides the finest conditioning I've ever experienced (and that includes outrageously priced stylist recommended Schwarzkopf products and similar). The hair feels heavy, lustrous and absolutely silky, while the scalp feel is very comfortable (I have very dry scalp that is prone to flaking especially when I use conditioners).

Especially for daily washing of unoiled hair, this mixture is perfect. If you do not pre-oil your hair, be brave and use 1:1 oil and shampoo, dilute with water as required. (I do not dilute, I enjoy the thick, creamy consistency of the mix.

For pre-oiled hair, try 1 oil : 2 shampoo.

More on "Face off": So i wasn't alone!

Last week, I wrote this post about how I quit Facebook as part of an exercise in uncluttering my world (both digital and analog).

This article in today's issue of Slate reports that the social networking site has started to lose active users from the US, Europe etc. The past month especially has seen a marked slow down in member activity. Read the Slate article here.

HANG UP!

In response to my Chinese mobile phones post, Narayanan says “In 99.5% situations, synchronous two-way real-time communication is a luxury.”

This statement got me thinking about a whole lot of things from telephones, technology and our communication culture.

Technology has stirred things up quite a bit, and most of us seem to be blissfully unaware of the function and the proper place of each mode of communication. Where an email will do, we text. Where a text will do, we call. Where a land-line call is feasible, we still choose to call from our cell phones to their cell phones, spending money, absorbing radiation into our skulls, and forcing the recipient to absorb some into his skull as well.

Apart from the need to communicate, there is the almost completely ignored question of manners: Stephen Fry, Writer, comedian, British national treasure and my pet god, puts it beautifully in an episode of the Brilliant BBC show Quite Interesting  (Series B Episode 05):

“Telephones are fantastically rude things. It is like saying 'speak to me now, speak to me now, speak to me now'. It is as if you went into someone's office and banged on their desk and said 'I'll make a noise until you speak to me' "

At some level, we are all aware of how intrusive telephones are: The recipient is at the mercy of the bloody ringing beast, and the annoyance often shows in the opening “hello” that s/he proffers.

With cell phones, it is like you take your ball and chain around with you. What is worse, we develop some sort of a Stockholm syndrome and start believing that this enslavement is necessary. See how alarmed we get when we realize we’ve forgotten our phones home – we panic that we are now “unreachable” and that fatal crisis for which we bought the cell phone in the first place, will now surely befall us.

The way I see it, there are two factors to consider- The appropriate choice of medium for a given communication need, and the level of intrusiveness of that medium.

1.     Email – replaces postal mail. Cheap, fast and sure – a winning alternative to the ponderous, notoriously undependable “snail” mail.
Intrusiveness Quotient: Lowest. Recipient can check mail and respond at his leisure

2.     SMS: Cheap, convenient replacement to telegram. Check if can be replaced by email.

Intrusiveness Quotient: Moderate, but recipient can choose to mute his phone and check messages at leisure.

3.     Telephone: replaces showing up at someone’s door unannounced. So this better be important.
Intrusiveness Quotient: Very high.

4.     Cell phone: Dire emergencies when AWAY from a fixed line or pay phone – ergo negligible need to most people.
Intrusiveness Quotient: Astronomical. Recipient has just volunteered to be at beck and call of all and sundry.

 COMMUNICATION HYBRIDS:

5.     Instant messaging (Chat)  - if looking for recreational communication with friends or family, this is perfect middle ground between the non-pressure of email and the instant two-way communicability of a phone or live conversation.
Intrusiveness quotient: Not applicable, since recipient need not sign into chat applications if he doesn’t want to.

I am not including Twitter in this list, because twitter is more like a mass communication tool – it is like having a personal radio station, into which audience can tune in if they want to. It's use is often broadcast of theme-based content and creative expression.

In his comment, Nayaranan made a brilliant suggestion about the midway solution of an SMS only device. An Internet search shows that a lot of people are looking for such a thing.

A text-only device would take care of the dreaded outdoor on-the-go “emergency” situation, but leave your tranquility unmolested.

No minimalist SMS-only device seems to exist, but these are clever devices along similar lines:

1.     Peek: Twitter only device – this design would be ideal for an SMS-only phone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_%28mobile_Internet_device%29

2.     Messaging only (SMS/email/IM) device – target at text-addicted teenagers
http://www.physorg.com/news1392.html

3.     John’s phone: The opposite of a text-only phone – this is a call-only phone. Not relevant to our topic, but interesting. The address book on this phone is a just piece of paper with a pen!!
http://www.johnsphones.com/

If you are interested in trying this out to take back your peace and privacy, you can easily convert your current phone into a SMS-only phone.

Tweak the call profile to silent for all calls, and have an alert tone for SMS alone. Kill GPS service, switch to the most text friendly plan. If you have a smart phone, sell it and buy the most basic phone possible – like the good & hardy Nokia 1100 – black & white screen, killer battery life, tough build. (and bonus LED torch - Now THAT is what makes a cell phone a useful tool during emergencies)

In order to still be available for casual conversations, the trick is to appoint and publicize a certain day of the week, or a certain hour of every day as “available to talk” time. This way, you’ll still have friends left. Irritated friends, but friends nevertheless.

I am sorely tempted to undertake this experiment right away. Getting friends and family to cooperate will be no problem - my offers to disappear are usually met with relief and rejoicing- but the problem is business contacts. I do freelance work, and if someone calls me about a new project, how will they reach me? I can give them  a fixed line number – we have two landlines at home and one can exclusively be my work number (So visiting nephews don’t take calls from clients and inform them I am in the toilet, again) but availability can be a problem, and missing a work call is my loss, not theirs – I am the one who wants their cheque.

This means I’ll be obliged to take calls from every bloody unknown number, which will undo the whole point of going cell-phone free. Ideas?

As soon as I have this figured out, I am totally willing to switch to the text-me life and see how it feels.

Face off!

My last post, along with the responses it elicited, has gotten me thinking about communication in general, and the idea of “staying in touch” in particular.

The last decade saw the birth of a new cyber-beast – online social networking. Myspace, Orkut and most popularly, Facebook.

Facebook was a hit not only with generation Y, the 1990’s born teenagers, but also with Gen-X who were in their late twenties or early thirties, having clocked sufficient time into the working world to be disillusioned with it, and nostalgic for childhood friends and playmates. I and my peers gobbled up Facebook whole, lured by the possibility of finding out what happened to long-lost acquaintances from school. A case of the proverbial cat that got, frankly, murdered.

I too managed to find friends from way back in Kindergarten, but was surprised to see that conversations never went beyond “Helloooo!!!” and the pro-forma glossing over of 20 odd years of detail. After that, there is little else to exchange. Your long-lost friends can't think of much to say, and you are hardly inclined to respond. And so they just sit on your friends list for years, privy to your personal information, status updates (read naval gazing) and photos of you tagged by someone else in idiotic albums that you wish you could burn.

In the meanwhile, Facebook will take you on a roller-coaster ride of security breaches and leaked private info leaving you jittery and squeamish about what said breach might mean for your data.

Now, let me point you to the biggest flaw in the plan. Nostalgia has emotional value precisely because it remains nostalgia. The mind does a terrific Photoshop job of the past and lets you play over and over again in your head only the nicest times, in slow motion and soft glow lighting. Finding out that your free-spirited playmate from grade school who went on papaya raids with you ended up a dumpy wash-out with a spouse s/he hates and children s/he wishes s/he never had, really curbs your enthusiasm. I’m now nostalgic for nostalgia. It felt wonderful to miss people and wonder how they fared.

What rubs the rage in is when papaya girl posts insipid kitten pictures as her profile picture, adds idiotic status messages about a roof that leaks or worse, inanities like "Life is a flower, sniff it" and drivel like that.

You, unlike me, may not be a sensitive soul, and may not mind these grave assaults on your sensibilities, but wait until your boss wants to "friend" you on Facebook. It is likely he is a much older man, new to the various delights of the Interwebs, and unlikely to have grasped the fragile and half-formed etiquette that governs social networking realms. He will send you a friend request. You will quietly decline it. He will send you another one and follow it with two emails and a phone call asking you why you've not accepted his request. If you were raised in polite society you are hardly likely to say "Why? Here's why: my last "family emergency" involved beer and a beach in Goa, and my idiotic friends have plastered tagged pictures all over Facebook. That's why."

If you are still unfazed, remember that eventually and inevitably, your aunt Saroja whose son bought her a computer so she can chat with him on skype from Madras to Milwaukee "for freeee!" will discover Facebook too,  and that's about when you realize that the dog now bites, and must be put to sleep.

To be fair, my relationship with Facebook was also professional. In the past two years, I helped run the social media marketing function of the online retail start-up that I worked for, and learning to acquire, maintain and manage a fan base was a huge learning experience.

Dynamic interaction with your buyer group is marketing gold. If you have something to sell, especially to young people, Facebook is your best friend.

Now that I don’t work for said firm any more, have nothing to sell and would like my nostalgia left alone, it is time to kill and bury the beast.

When I announced my exit, I was flooded with inquiries of how on earth I would stay in touch. I sent a “going-of-the-radar” message to Facebook contacts I wished to keep, and wrote them my email ID so they can E-MAIL me news, like we all used to in the simple olden days.

Twitter I continue to hold, but that is because twitter allows me to follow topics, and not just people.

I am now trying to forget the awful things I've learned - like how that kid from 8th grade, a boy of sparkling wit and intellect has grown up into a sad old schmuck who changed his name to suit numerology, so his new name now has 3 vowels repeated eight times.

The curious case of Chinese mobile phones

Chinese mobile phones have been on my radar for a  while now, and recently I got to take a closer look at them.

Some brands like Karbonn are gaining mainstream ground, but there are really lots & lots of brands on the market. Chinese phones are probably best known for being inexpensive, but are also known for making cheap knock-offs of popular mainstream models.

The case for buying cheap mobile phones is that phones, being small electronic items, are easily lost or damaged, making huge investments in them unwise. That said, I personally have a distaste for knock-offs. I can't explain it, but so it is. I don't mind a cheap, original design, but knock-offs and public-deceiving replicas I find distasteful.

Danny, being both ham-handed & forgetful, has wisely avoided the blackberry / iphone traps so far. His phone needs are basic, but his long bus rides to work make an entertainment device useful - a music player, but more importantly, a gaming device or best still, a video player on which he can watch his awful horror flicks.

A couple of months of research, and we landed on the Rocker Sure Diamond (no avoiding tacky names) - a touch phone that is turning out to be quite a delight. Its 3-page screen and reasonably good touch sensitivity make it fun & easy like any touch phone, but is longer & heavier, with a track ball for good measure. The weight might be a con for most, but we don't mind the extra grams.

A lot of the features like the gravity & shake response have been "inspired" by the iphone, but the makers have actually taken nice features from a lot of phone models to put into this one. The feature-ridden still/video camera is nice enough, the video / music players  are terrific. The dual sim feature is a blessing, there are also games, mail / FB clients and what-have-you, an antenna set up for FM radio, and a stylus for those who have trouble with the touch feature - if you've got big fingers and have tried typing on an iphone, you'll appreciate the stylus. All for under Rs. 3000.


It remains to be seen how long the phone will last - I'll be happy if it runs a year, and at that price, you don't have to worry so much about losing / breaking it. (It was hard to see someone drop an Iphone 4 from a car the other day. Rs. 45K. Ouch.)

Brands like Rocker & G-five have blackberry-type phones too - I saw one the other day that had a trackpad & full blackberry menu & functionality AND a pull-out antenna to watch TV!! (OK, public broadcast doordarshan, but still..)

Pros:
- Ridiculously feature rich - often the best features from several phones are integrated into one.
- No proprietary software / manipulative BS  
- always dual sim, allowing you to blend plans from two providers (talk on one, text on another)
- Very cheap

Fun features: I was very tickled to see that these phones have no qualms about throwing in  cheeky features like fake calls and background noises that let you lie to the caller about you location. No I don't find THAT ethically distasteful. There is a place for righteous lying. Like when the boss man calls. Or your mother.

Cons:
- the phones will most probably not have a long life.

- I hear reports that some Chinese mobiles actually exploded while in use!
- The ethical issues about Knock-off / look-alikes  (between you and your god)

Do your research!

Even if you aren't looking for a look-alike (eesh), a lot of these phones do seem to offer great value for money.

Stuff

Listen to George Carlin talk about "stuff". I can't remember, but I am convinced it was this video years ago that stirred things up for me.

Miss you Georgie, RIP.

Interesting read: "Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed"

Many thanks to Suvarna for finding this article on manufactured lifestyles. Here's an excerpt:

"The perfect customer is dissatisfied but hopeful, uninterested in serious personal development, highly habituated to the television, working full-time, earning a fair amount, indulging during their free time, and somehow just getting by.

Is this you?"

Read the entire article here.

Crystal deodorant

Here’s a cheap, safe(r?) alternative to commercially available deodorants- Potash Alum (potassium double sulfate of aluminium), known in tamil as Padigaram.

Body odor is caused by bacteria growing in the humid folds of skin like the under arms. Commercially available deodorants invariably are scented coktails of questionable chemicals that typically act to block off pores in the area, suppressing sweating and consequently, odor.

I don’t care for the idea of pores being blocked, and prefer to shower regularly and go au naturel when possible. However, most of us, myself included, cannot do entirely without a deodorant either – especially those of us who live in humid climates and need to spend several hours outdoors, inflicting our vile vapours upon the innocent public.

Then, while pottering around in a raw food website (more about that in another post), I found that “crystal deodorants” were touted as safe alternatives to regular deodorants. Some research and roping in CK’s chemistry expertise tells me that these crystals are essentially Alum – ammonium alum in this product's case, but perfectly replaceable with the more commonly available (in India) potash alum.

Older men will remember this as the barber's stone, and gentlemen patrons received a post-shave face swabbing with it in the good old days.

Alum works as a bactericide, and has been used as a deodorant for over 1000 years now. After showering, rubbing alum to the moist underarm region drops the PH value of the skin in that area, rendering it acidic and inhospitable for bacterial growth.

The theory sounded fine, so I am trial running it, this is day 2. So far, I am bloody impressed. Last morning, I used it after shower, headed out and spent the day being my sweaty Sunday self. After about 6 – 8 hours of oily sweat and grime, no discernible odor! Today was also a long, sweaty day out, and Alum held up wonderfully.

My friend is trying it out on her feet that sweat inside shoes and consequently get smelly, and she tells me that she has had a very successful day 1.

Fragrances are important to me, though I hate literally every scented deodorant I’ve tried. Alum doesn’t have any smell of its own, so you can use your favorite fragrance along with it if you wish. Now that I use alum, I've been able to break out my stash of itr (attars). I’m wearing Khus right now, and I smell summer wherever I go.

Despite some half-hearted nay-saying that I saw on the internet about the safety of alum, my logic is simply that alum has been used in our wells to purify/clarify water for ages now, and potash alum is also a common ingredient in certain kinds of pickles.

Sure, over-application on the skin could create enough acid to give you a rash, but used normally, I am convinced you will find this an all-round winner.

You will find alum in old-style herb stores priced at roughly Rs. 20 – Rs.30 for a half kilo of large crystals. Remember that the skin has to be moist, or you must moisten the crystal with a drop of water before use. Don't wet it completely, store dry. No re-application necessary - each application lasts for 10 - 12 hours at least.

_________________________________________________________


NOTE: People with severe & chronic body odor (persistent despite good hygiene) should try cleaning out their intestines. A thorough 3-day cleanse cures even the worst body odors - tested with positive results by at least two people I know, whose twice a day shower routine wasn't helping with their odor problems.

See a doctor (ayurvedic/siddha) about taking a purgative, ask your mother how to take castor oil, or do a salt water flush for three days, eating only simple, raw vegetarian food on these days. The odor will go away. Caveat: I'm not a doc.

How does a minimalist eat?

Here's a sweeping statement that I'll stand by: Simple foods simplify life.

A minimalist eats uncomplicated food. And when you break that down, it turn out to be vegetarian. I am by no means an advocate of vegetarianism, and this is not the arena to discuss the ethical issues behind meat and animal products.

But when it comes to minimalism, vegetarian food wins, here's why. (I would throw half of these reasons out of the window, but the other half is good enough.)

But before you vegetarians start gloating, vegetarian food does not automatically amount to minimalist eating. If your precious plant produce needs hours of prepping, needs to cook for half an hour over LPG fueled fire, simmering with spices flown in from 7 different states before it can be consumed, there's hardly anything simple about it, is there.

I am talking about raw foods. Locally procured, simply prepared and freshly consumed. Minimal time, effort and energy from plant to plate, and minimal digestive effort by the body.  Could you do it?

I am a big foodie, but I think this will be my year to start out in the sattvic, simple diet direction. It is not a forced decision, in fact it is not even a decision. Especially with my strong yoga practice these days, I notice the digestive load that complicated foods put on my body. (I mean even home cooked foods - fry 7 ingredients, grind with coconut, simmer with odds and ends that have been soaking overnight. The worst culprits are our starchy, nutritionally pointless breakfast items)

The myriad health benefits manifest themselves rapidly, and I spot the first effects in my yoga practice. There is so much more focus, I'm able to go deeper into postures and hold them for longer. The mind is clear and quiet.

I don't know how this will evolve. Right now, I'm eating raw food a couple of days a week, whenever possible. Going forward, I'll step up RF to alternate days, slowly easing into the system till cooked, complicated foods are like dessert -  an occasional, enjoyable treat. May take years though.

Lest you should think this is something of a fad diet, think about how sad it is that we now think of simple, straight-forward food as a fad. This is not any kind of diet plan. This is a lazy man's dream, a way of simplifying your life in one fell swoop. Think about it - no sweaty kitchen time, no complex recipes to remember, no stocking of dozens of ingredients, no expensive fuel to buy, no digestion pills to swallow after meals.

The RF menu is surprisingly wide open:

i. Practically any vegetable you can manage (Think beyond carrot and cucumber, you! tender green beans are great too. As is cabbage, radish, turnips, tomatoes, onion, capsicum, tender leaves of all greens like spinach. Actually, experiment. Try a snake gourd. You'll be surprised how many vegetables taste rather nice when raw)

ii. All edible fruit you can lay your hands on

iii. Sprouted pulses. Any pulse. Buy it whole, soak and sprout. Spritz lime juice and chow.

iii. All edible nuts and seeds. Include coconut in nuts, and in seeds, sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.


To take a minimalist approach to food, just think about how, and how much, you can reduce the number of steps it takes to get the food from the plant to your plate.

Remedy for a common summer ailment

In summer especially, it is common to develop boils on the rim of the eyelids (called styes). These swell up over time, turn red and painful, often shutting the eye out completely. I usually go to a doctor, get drops and things, and it takes about 3 to 4 days to subside.

I started to get a boil yesterday - it had swollen up a bit, and was making it painful for me to blink. Then my friend Asha suggested a cure - dab some saliva on it several times a day. Apparently this is a well-known remedy, but I had never heard of it.

This was last evening at about 4 PM, when the stye had already inflamed quite a bit. I did the application once every half an hour till bedtime, and this morning the boil is completely gone!!

If you are wondering which is the least unpleasant way to procure saliva, just dip a finger under your tongue to pick up a drop on your finger tip, and dab on the afflicted spot. Repeat often.

Gross, but effective!

Value buy: Vicco foam base cream

This is a lovely, lovely product. The only soap I use is Carbolic, but on a long day out, Chennai's humidity makes a portable, non-messy face wash tube indispensable. In the past I've used Himalaya neem, pears etc, but then I found this gem and I love it.

This blue tube says "Vicco turmeric with foam  base", and isn't immediately recognizable as a face wash - you will likely find it in the cosmetic aisle on the face cream shelf. (Way to kill a good product with bad labeling, Vicco!)

The contents are an unappetizing brown (and a bit runny, so don't squeeze too hard). You need only a tiny bit for a routine wash. The stuff lathers very well, smells wonderfully pleasant, and does a great job of clearing away oil and grime from the face. I find that it takes care of heat rashes too (the prickly variety).

At Rs. 30 for a 30 g tube, this stuff is brilliant, and lasts quite long.

Look for the blue Vicco tube with the grinning dude (why?) on the cover.

Making herbal hair oil

For a few years now, I have taken to oiling my hair regularly before showering - a ritual that I used to detest as a child, but that I quite enjoy these days.

I have no western medical explanation for this, but oiling the scalp regularly is considered "cooling" for the body. I do find that regular oil baths calm the nerves, prevent headaches and in general help me handle the heat much better.

Given my frequent use, I've found it advantageous (and fun) to make my own herbal hair oil.

Ingredients:

Oil (sesame / coconut)
Karisilankanni leaves (Bhringaraja, Eclipta alba / Eclipta prostata, False daisy)
1 clean old cotton towel (the thin "thorthu" ones, or an old square of Veshti)
water
a wok (kadai)
stove

Total time: 60 - 90 minutes

Eclipta Alba:

Bhringaraj or karisilankanni in Tamil is a robust ornamental shrub that is also known as false daisy. While two unrelated species of herbs are both known as Karisilankanni, the Manjal Karisilankanni (Wedelia chinensis / Wedelia calendulacea, yellow flowers) is unrelated to Eclipta, which has smaller but similar leaves and small white flowers.


Eclipta is commonly found in south India, and you should be able to get it fresh in a good produce market. We get it in Madras at the Koyambedu market, in the greens section. A fairly thick bunch retails for Rs. 10.

Oil:

My preference is for sesame (gingelly/til) oil. If you retain the practice of setting your hair with oil, you ought to go with the milder scented and less greasy coconut oil

Like most people, my oil-set hair days are behind me. Since I only use the stuff for soaking before a wash, I prefer the better recommended sesame oil that I find fragrant and calming. Also, sesame oil has a higher smoke point and will not burn easily, and it has a very long shelf life. Coconut oil on the other hand will turn rancid soon if you boil it, so make smaller batches if you choose this oil.

Whatever the oil, try to get fresh-pressed stuff from an oil merchant, and not the expensive, double-refined nonsense that sells in supermarkets.

So, here's the recipe.

Wash the Eclipta leaves for residual soil, and separate the leaves and the green stems from the thicker, darker stalk leading to the root. Place the leaves and stems with just enough water in a processor to grind into a thick batter. Notice that the batter is bluish black.

Place the batter in the towel / cloth square, and wring out all the juice. measure the juice into the wok, and add equal quantity of oil.

Place the wok on the stove, let simmer while stirring occasionally. The water will loudly splutter and eventually boil away completely. You will know this when there mixture quietens down, there is no more water vapour emerging from the wok, and the oil boils up in fine, transparent, foamy bubbles. After this point, don't let the oil boil for any longer, or the sediments will char.

The oil should be a lovely blackish green. Remove from fire and allow to cool, and then store in a glass jar. You don't have to filter out the fine, powdery sediment, it has a nice scrubbing effect on the scalp.

Use liberally on scalp and hair, soak for at least 30 minutes, and wash away with sheekha or shampoo.

I've been using this for over a month, and my hair fall has stopped almost completely. I also don't have flaking and other dry scalp issues, and I notice that my hair is growing faster.

You can use the same technique to prepare Henna (Marudhani, Lawsonia Inermis) oil too. The oil comes out a beautiful saffron orange, and is nice for henna dyed hair.

Note: if you strongly prefer coconut oil, you can try an alternative method. Grind the leaves into a thicker paste with very little water and pat into small flat cakes, leave in the sun till dry and hard. Then, drop the cakes into a glass jar filled with coconut oil, close and leave in the sun for a couple of weeks, several hours each day. The oil will change colour and extract the effective ingredients from the cakes, but wont turn rancid as quickly as when boiled.

These oils are fun to make, extremely good value for money, and are nice way to incorporate natural products into your body maintenance regimen.

Carbon footprint - Quite Interesting

Can you imagine the energy cost of every new person?

By the way, QI is a great show hosted by Stephen Fry. Educative, amusing and thought provoking. Many episodes are available on Youtube.

What will they buy?

To me, being rich is being debt free, owning a home, and having an independent source of income.

Assuming you are a small family with the first 2 conditions met, simple math tells me that a couple of crores in a nationalized bank will fetch you 18 lakhs per annum (@ 9%, today's average interest rate), that is at least a lakh a month post tax. Your income will be permanent as long as you have the sense never to touch the capital, so you have no obligation to save (beyond a set-aside to cover inflation) . And 1 lakh of spending money is a LOT. Even today, even in the big cities. No?

So what is the deal with people chasing thousands of crores, especially through illegal means? I agree there are people who like, and are entitled to, a large and lavish lifestyle. But what can you buy with 6000 crores most of which is hidden in untraceable "benami" accounts?

Really. serious question.

Sadiq Batcha's walls had affirmation notes that read: I will be the richest man in the world.

Bernie Madoff stole something like 75 billion dollars. Seriously, what was the plan, man?

Addiction? Something like Kleptomania? Food and money - we never think of the people who abuse these two as addicts who need help.

Update on Improving shampoo

This is a follow-up to the post Improving shampoo.

I finally got around to testing CK's suggestion about using rice bran oil in place of coconut oil. Also, Instead of the 2 shampoo: 1 oil ratio I had suggested in my original post, I went 1:1 this time and to up the ante, pre-oiled my hair too. Results are terrific! At 2 : 1, you are still using too much shampoo, it turns out you can go with much more oil than you think. And remember, I went 1:1 with rice bran oil, which is a much heavier oil than coconut oil. (Halo shampoo, no water used). The conditioning effect with rice bran is markedly superior when compared to coconut oil.

I shook the mix up to form a mango milkshake-y emulsion. There is no oil smell - unlike with coconut oil which smells, well, coconutty, which I kind of liked, but no oil smell is a good thing for work days.

I had pre-oiled my hair rather heavily, so we are talking about a lot of grease here. I had to use the mix twice - first wash, rinse, then wash again. Not much lather the first time, but small, fine lather the second time around. After the final rinse, hair felt slick but not greasy, like after a conditioner.

Hair is dry now, and feels lovely. No grease, but dark, glossy, well-set look, which is what a really good conditioner will do to straight hair. Remember that this was on pre-oiled hair! I think that if you use the mix without oiling your hair first, you'll still get a gentle wash, leading to hair that looks moisturized, but also has bounce and body. It is also possible that to was unoiled hair, you could go with even more oil in the mix. I'll try it out.

But remember, these are proportions for Halo shampoo, which is a regular surfactant based shampoo that I find quite drying on its own (same as sunsilk, pantene and even biotique in my experience). If you are trying this with some other brand of shampoo+conditioner or a very gentle cleanser, you could try and go with lesser oil.

To summarize the differences between using rice bran oil and coconut oil in the mix - with rice bran oil, there is slightly lesser lather. No smell other than the shampoo fragrance. gentler cleaning, softer, silkier hair post-wash.

Where costs are concerned, rice bran oil is probably one of the cheapest vegetable oils out there, retailing at Rs. 70 - 90 per liter.

Rice bran oil is available at all supermarkets, just like sunflower oil, etc.

If you want to try this with other oils, knock yourself out! But comeback and tell us what happened. I'll live up to my promise and try the mix with castor oil, just for kicks :-D

PS: here is another suggestion, also from CK - for itchy scalp, infections or dandruff, add a couple of drops of dettol. Hm! Will certainly try this.

Interesting read: Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard?

Thanks for this link, CK!

This article is primarily about cognitive neuroscience, but I found it very useful because it explains the reason why complications creep into everyday decisions about simple chores. It helped me understand some of the modern factors that might inhibit one from cultivating simplicity as a life practice.

Here's an extract of particular relevance to this blog:

Jonah Lehrer says:

"In essence, my basic decision-making flaw is that I tend to treat easy consumer decisions (toothpaste, floss, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc.) as if they were really difficult. Although I know that every floss will work well enough, I still can’t help but contemplate the pros and cons of waxed versus unwaxed, spearmint versus wintermint. It’s an embarrassing waste of time, and yet it happens to me all the time.

Why do I do this? Why do I squander so much mental energy on the mundane purchases of everyday life? I think I’ve found a good answer.

I recently stumbled upon a working paper, “Decision Quicksand: When Trivial Choices Suck Us In,” by Aner Sela (University of Florida) and Jonah Berger (Penn). Their hypothesis is that my wasted deliberation in the drugstore is a metacognitive mistake. Instead of realizing that picking a floss is an easy decision, I confuse the array of options and excess of information with importance, which then leads my brain to conclude that this decision is worth lots of time and attention. Call it the drug store heuristic: A cluttered store shelf leads us to
automatically assume that a choice must really matter, even if it doesn’t. (After all, why else would there be so many alternatives?)"


Read the full article here.

Improving shampoo

Last week while traveling I found a neat way to improve shampoo, and make it last longer.

But first – my favorite and preferred hair wash solution is a mix of powdered shikha (Acacia concinna) and "arapu/chigare” (Scientific name?. Safe, extremely inexpensive, and completely biodegradable.  I mix a table spoon of both these powders with warm water to batter consistency to wash oiled hair. Admittedly, this is not for busy workdays.

Shampoos are convenient, but more expensive than traditional cleansers, non-biodegradable and bad for soil health, and their safety level for human use is dubious at best.

That said, chances are it is going to take a lot of lifestyle change before you give up shampoo altogether, so here are ways to lessen the evil.

I find shampoo use complicated because I find that it dries out my scalp and hair, which means I’ve to either oil my hair heavily, or use a conditioner. Most likely the latter, because even if I oil my hair, shampoo ends up stripping the oil off completely.

Moreover, shampoo is unnecessarily thick. You can dilute it considerably, even though the bottle says not to.

To combat the drying factor, dilute shampoo with part oil and part water. The oil softens the shampoo considerably, and has a superb conditioning effect on hair.

Take about  20 ml of shampoo in an empty bottle, and add 10 ml of oil, and 10 ml of water. Shake well. Upon shaking the contents form a  milky emulsion. Contents will settle, you’ll need to shake the bottle every time before use.  I don’t know yet if the oil will turn rancid, so make small batches just enough for a week.

The effect of adding oil directly to shampoo is very pronounced. You don't have to pre-oil - hair turns out perfectly conditioned and set. The lather is rich and fine, and when you rinse off, don't get nervous about the slightly slick texture - this is similar to the slickness that conditioners leave behind, and will disappear when dry. I am now trying to find the threshold at which oil becomes too much in the shampoo, so I can stay just south of that mark. The water is for dilution only – maybe I can do away with that entirely, I don’t know yet.

Which shampoo?

This should work with any shampoo – use your favorite. I tried it first with an almost empty bottle of Biotique soy protein shampoo. Nice, I loved the smell, but pricey.

I am really not convinced about the value you are getting with expensive shampoos over inexpensive ones. If you are going for a laureth sulfate -free shampoo, you are on to something good, but most of the branded shampoos in the market have the same poisons, so why pay more?

From a value perspective, the cheapest shampoo on the market (from a reputed manufacturer) turns out to be good old Halo (M/f Colgate-Palmolive) from my childhood. There is only the yellow “egg protein” variant available, and only in 1 liter bottles. The price is Rs. 235 for the litre. In Chennai there is a Rs.30 off too, so I got it for Rs. 205. A casual price check on the supermarket shelves tells me that the rest retail at Rs. 150 - 200 and above for a 400 ml bottle.

Which oil?

Coconut is fine. Light, mild scented. I am not sure how other vegetable oils will hold up – for one, the smell should be too intense. I am very tempted to try castor oil though, will let you know what happens.

Coconut oil costs Rs. 140 per litre bought loose at the old fashioned oil merchant’s. Bottled varieties like meera etc cost around Rs. 200, and I find they give you pointless enhancements. (Advansed?? Yeah well,  I am not spending nearly Rs. 300/L for poor spelling, Parachute).

At 2:1 ratio, Halo+coconut oil works out to Rs. 180 per litre, which is substantially cheaper (on the average around 70%) than even the mid-range varieties like Sunsilk, and you don’t have to buy a conditioner, which makes it even better value.

I’ve just washed my hair with this mix, and  while I do (ahem!) have naturally soft and silky hair, my hair feels even more fabulous than usual (:-D). Those of you with dry, frizzy conditioner-dependant hair, please try this out and let me know.

Like I said, go with more oil than what I have suggested, or try out various proportions till you find one that works for you.

**************************
U P D A T E  !!!
**************************

CK has as usual beaten me in the value-for-money race. He sees my coconut oil, and raises me rice bran oil.

Like coconut oil, rice bran oil has no strong scent or colour. However, it is slightly more greasy without being too viscous, which ought to make the conditioning effect better than the thinner, lighter coconut oil. And here's what'll interest the hardcore value hunter: coconut oil costs Rs. 140 per liter, while RB oil costs roughly half as much at Rs. 70!! That means a 2:1 halo to RB oil mix totals to Rs. 160 per liter!!

I'll try it out myself to test the feel, and post here.

Traveling light

I am gone all of next week, and I love to pack. By the way, packing is another opportunity to put minimalism into practice.

In general, I am a light traveler and am proud of my packing skills. That said, I still always find myself carrying stuff that I never use on the trip. It is surprising how you think that while you haven't used that balm/spray/gel in a whole year, you'll somehow need it on the 3 day trip.

The last time D & I went away on a vacation, we went with one medium size day bag - rather a largish laptop backpack, and that was for the two of us, for 8 nights. And I still found that I had carried things that I didn't use.

Our entire luggage for the last 8-night getaway, and my wonder slippers

This time, i am trying to pare things really really thin.

Over my years of traveling, I have developed some beliefs about holiday travel:

1.  No matter how long your trip, you don't need more than 3 sets of clothes, including what you wear for the journey.

Use hotel laundry (your lordship), or like me, carry a detergent bar and a brush, wash and dry clothes overnight, every night. You can pare that number down further if you are carrying jeans. You'll of course add 1 pair of location specific clothing - swimwear, warm wear etc depending upon where you are going. On my vacation (to warm locations), I carry 1 pair of jeans, 1 cotton trousers, and a maximum of 3 T-shirts or the exceptionally soft mull fabric cotton tops (why? because they fold away into the size of a hanky, taking up no space at all. I could stick a folded top in a pant pocket. My current mull tops are from pricey fabindia though. I must find the fabric, must keep checking in at the new handloom store)

2. If you need to pack a pair of footwear, you are such a diva.

My travel staple is a pair of flat rubber/foam slippers from Bata (see below) that are as comfortable as bathroom slippers, but look marginally better. They cost me Rs. 170 in 2009, and have been to at least 5 short and long getaways with me since then. Great for beach - wet wear, and I can walk miles in them with no discomfort.

My travel slippers from Bata (sorry for the poor photo quality - my mobile cam is no good)

3. Toiletries - it is worth investing in a set of small travel bottles

If your trip is not longer than a week, then the toiletry supplies that you need is limited. Chances are you are either lugging the entire 400 ml bottle of shampoo / conditioner / moisturizer, or you are buying overpriced "travel-size" packs from the brand. Instead, find little plastic bottles from around the house, or go ahead and buy cheap little plastic vials, label them and fill them up from your bottles at home. (while shopping, cheap is the key factor - plain white plastic bottles will do - this is not an occasion to go shopping for tupperware) You save space in your bag, fit into the cabin luggage fluid allowance, have less weight to carry, and you don't end up over-paying for the pretty but pricey travel-size packs.

I agree that bath gels are convenient for travel (if your hotel doesn't give you soap), but I prefer to bring well used bar of soap with me that i can finish on the trip.


4. Tricky bits:

The important thing about non-basic toiletries is that often, we think of a vacation destination as a place to re-invent ourselves with some kind of a makeover - you imagine yourself doing things that you wish you were doing back at home (diligently groom, preen, polish). Chances are, you won't do anything differently. I see vacations as a time to run on economy mode, not on turbo mode. Scale down, scale down!

Moisturizer.

Think think think. Do you really need to carry that bottle? Do you moisturize at home? Is you vacation destination drying? Won't a tiny bottle of coconut oil do? (Parachute's travel bottles for about 5 bucks a pop is lovely, and I am sure the other coconut oil guys have them too)

Sunscreen.

I really, really don't know about this one, and am planning a whole post about sunscreens. Frankly, too much fear has been drilled into me about sun exposure and skin cancer, but I have a hard time believing that the ridiculously suspicious looking list of ingredients on a bottle of sunscreen is harmless for you. Like Tequila says in the comments section of this post, cover up. Wear longer sleeves, carry a hat or an umbrella.

To my vacation next week, I will cow down and carry a bottle of sunscreen, although my last trip still gave me nasty sun rashes even after using loads of sunscreen. But this time, i am carrying full-sleeve rash-guards, so there will be lesser exposed skin. I will still use the damn sunblock though, because of the skin-cancer brainwash. A propos, I wonder if those who tan really quickly and turn very dark have a lesser exposure risk. My skin behaves like those  photochromatic spectacles that no one seems to favoe these days - turning very very dark, very very quickly. I like to think that that somehow reduces my likelihood of burning or sun related problems... I must look it up.


Hand creme / anti-wrinkle creme / similar snake oils:
Oh come on.

My one travel indulgence, though, is a book.


I'll let you know how my extra-light packing attempt goes.Do share your thoughts/experiences/tips on traveling light.

Found a handloom wholesaler

In Anna Nagar, (2nd avenue, near Santosh) I found  a wholesaler selling fabric from Chirala, AP. Huge but unassuming godown, loads of fabric from soft clothing material to curtain and upholstry material. Great range of Kalamkari and "daboos" fabric that is lovely for making the kind of clothes I wear. There are nice soft, chanderi and raw silk varieties too.

I find that for retail customers who walk in, the pricing is a bit arbitrary - I got the feeling that they just randomly quoted a number. Price ranges from 85 - 100 bucks per  meter on an average, with expensive fabric retailing at Rs.120.

The range is great, the fabric quality is exceptional, and while I don't know if the price is a steal, buying 2.5 meters and having a kurti made will still work out to about 40% cheaper than buying at fabindia, which is the only readymade store where I've seen sensibly stitched kurtis in these fabrics.

I have a vague memory of Madarsha (Purasawakkam) having really cheap kalamkari fabric (I am talking about rs. 60 / meter), but not sure if it was the same fabric quality. Must walk into fabric stores in T Nagar too, and take a lookie.

There is also the good old pantheon road with its streetside fabric merchants, but again, must check t see how the quality compares.

Anyway, back to the wholesaler I found, a couple of my friends raided the place really well, while I remained true to my no-more-new-clothes mandate, didn't buy any. Bought some curtain material for MIL though, upon her request.

A propos the dress shopping embargo, the 40 kurta thing is still bugging me. I'm gonna give away at least 10. They are all well used, but still perfectly usable. Might as well give it now when someone can still use it. And if I pare my wardrobe down, later in the year I can eventually pick up some fabric for myself too, maybe  ;-B

Value : Stainless steel drinking bottles

Don't use plastic water bottles, for all the obvious reasons - they are polluting and unhealthy, not to mention wasteful.

The stainless steel bottles you see below are a great option. If you are in Chennai, Santosh in Anna Nagar carries them, and I assume so will any well-stocked steel utensil store like Rathna. They cost roughly between Rs. 150-200 depending upon the size, and will last for years.

The bottles come in sizes from 300 ml to a liter. Keep them at home, keep one in the car and drop a smaller one in your office bag, so you don't have to buy packaged water. Irrespective of the size, the heads are all the same, which means you can mix caps. And by the way, they come with a variety of caps - flat lids, looped ones like you see here, and even sippers which make them nice for kids (or cyclists).  I use the really small one (300 ML) to carry breakfast porridge to work, if I am going early. Oh by the way, the caps are made of plastic yes, but my water sits well below the neck, and since they make the bottle completely leakproof, I'll make my peace with them.

These bottles aren't insulated though, so if you leave your bottle in the sun, the contents will get warm. But the water will still smell and taste fine, unlike the plasticky smelling water from a regular bottles that've been left in the sun. Eek. (Packaged water sits in those plastic bottles for god knows how long before you get to drink it.)

Among reusable bottles, there are also Sigg bottles and their clones, and here is my gripe with them:  while they look snazzier, they are much more expensive, are made of aluminum, and to keep the aluminum from getting into your water, the inside is coated with "food-grade enamel"(which their CEO claims is safe). In any case, it all seems unnecessarily complicated, and why bother when there is simpler solution?

I remember using steel bottles for a while when I was a kid - the steel was of very thin gauge and used to get badly dented, and also, the bottles used to have a lot of ridges just like a Bisleri bottle, which was idiotic because the ridges were impossible to scrub clean on the inside. That way, I love the smooth curves of my current set of bottles, with no place for dirt to hide. I wash them with salt water, baking soda and a bottle brush.

Safe, reusable, and economical in the long run.

cleaning

Lemons / White Vinegar
Salt
Baking soda

If you have the above four, you can handle many cleaning situations at home.

While rinsing water bottles and flasks, use salt+baking soda to scour and rinse. The salt disinfects, and the soda deodorizes.

Use water+salt+vinegar solution to wipe kitchen countertops and table tops. It disinfects reasonably well, and the sour smell discourages flies.

These items are cheap and safe. Avoid using commercially available spray solutions - they are invariably harmful, expensive and the 100% germ killing is impractical, and in any case unnecessary.

12/02/2011

Thanks anonymous commenter, for the tip on using borax. Borax is cheap, and especially suitable for bathrooms and other wet areas. Use with caution in the kitchen, because borax, though natural is harmful if ingested, so you'll need to rinse it our thoroughly to keep it from getting into your food. Read more about borax here.

Micro homes in the land of Mcmansions

Adorable!

I suppose downsizing to this scale might be rather scary for most people, but if you are planning to build a house sometime, this inspiration might help you save lots of money and maintenance issues.

Value : Carbolic soap

Remember the red Lifebuoy brick from childhood?

In a world of gooey last-a-week cream soaps and "bathing bars", few people know of or remember carbolic soaps.

Through the last century or so, carbolic soaps are credited with saving more lives from succumbing to infection than are drugs. Even now, this cheap and trusty old soap is a sanitation staple in health centers serving the poor in countries the world over.

{In the strictest sense, using a "bath powder" (grain or pulse meal mixed with herbs - cheap, healthy and biodegradable) is the finest bathing solution I've experienced, but more about this in another post.}

When it comes to soaps, I personally believe that there is no such thing as a beauty soap. The only thing a good soap can and ought to do is clean and disinfect without being harsh on your skin, or leaving semi-tested chemicals behind. As for slimy shower gels that are a pain to rinse off, I have nothing but contempt for them.

A carbolic soap meets all my bathing requirements. The soap has been around for a long time, each bar lasts a long while, it thoroughly cleans, disinfects and deodorizes, and doesn't leave my skin dried out either (but I moisturize in winters). It blasts through rashes (I have sensitive skin) and is supposedly very effective on acne. The smell is strong and aseptic, which is perfect because I want to smell clean, not like jasmine or seaweed or a tropical fruit.

There are a few other uses for the soap too. For minor scrapes and cuts, washing the spot with water and leaving on a film of carbolic soap for a while protects against infection. My grandmother used to do this for our little scrapes, and my dad tells me he used to do the same when he was a kid.

Carbolic soaps have been popular bug repellants for a while now, and in my personal experience, this is perfectly true. Commercial mosquito repellents can cause severe allergic reactions and/or respiratory problems, as they have for my mother, while a simple shower can give you a lot of relief from bugs. Apart from showering with the soap, I discovered a way to add a bug repellent booster dose. In Madras the mosquito menace is acutest in the evenings, and yesterday I had showered in the morning with carbolic but wasn't sure if the smell still lingered. So I took a dry bar of the soap and rubbed it all over exposed parts - arms, legs and feet. Yes, mosquitoes do steer clear of you!

There must be small manufacturers of the soap in various parts of the country, and among known brands, Nirma has a carbolic soap though it doesn't seem to be available in the south. I personally use "Carbolic" by Karnataka soaps & detergents. When I'm not using an herbal bath powder (and that is most of the previous year), this is the only soap I've used for almost a year now, and I simply love it.

The soap retails at 14 bucks for 150 gms and lasts a really long time. Sadly, this soap is not freely available everywhere (a situation that I find is increasingly the norm with many good, honest products), but I have often seen them in Big Bazaar.

If you live in Karnataka, you can pick the soap up in bulk at a KS&D factory outlet, and you'll get it for a couple of bucks cheaper.  (While you are at KS&D, don't miss another wonderful product - Mysore detergent bar, a yellow laundry soap that is inexpensive and skin-friendly - dermatologist Dr. Thambaiah of Madras recommended yellow detergent cakes. But I just checked their site, and I don't see it listed. Another lovely product dead??)

Apart from personal use, given how these have been preferred by doctors in primary care centers around the world, a box of carbolic soaps  can be a novel and very useful goodwill gift if you are looking to help a health facility that serves the poor, or a welfare-based school, or a home for children or the aged.  

The carbolic soap is a wonderful product, and it would be a shame to see it die because of lack of demand.

More on the topic of toilette:

My bathing routine simply involves Carbolic soap and a scrubbing brush. For brushes, go for fibre loofahs like this one. In Tamil Nadu, you'll find these in small grocery outlets or herbal medicine stores selling at 5-10 bucks bucks a piece. Or you can go to a health & glow type outlet and throw away 50 - 100 bucks for the same stuff.

Khadi gramodyog has round idli-like loofahs for 10 bucks each, made of fragrant vetiver! But remember to soak any natural fibre brush in water for a couple of days to soften it up. It can be quite rough on the skin when new.

If you have no choice but to go plastic,  these damn things make pretty bubbles, but are bloody useless as scrubbers. You are better off with these - very very cheap, no-nonsense and effective. Just be nice and try to make one last for a long long long time, so that you reduce plastic waste. Once it is shredded from use, it can still scrub tiles or your bike or car.

That's it for this post. Bye!

Skincare: Make your own moisturizer

I know of no woman that is so butch as to not keep a stash of skin care products. Even “low maintenance” women end up with a lot of cosmetic stuff that they pick up, often more out of impulse than of any real need. I challenge any woman to walk around a bath & bodyworks kind of store and not squirm and salivate.

Over time though, one realizes that most “skincare” products are actually nonsense. Most of what you really need, you can make at home.

Let us start with moisturizing:

Note:  There are several elaborate recipes even for homemade products, some of which are possibly valid cures for special skin conditions. However, since this blog is about simplicity and minimalism, We'll look at the simplest solution possible.

Dry skin can be itchy and annoying. Moisturizing is essentially creating a film of barrier on the skin to lock moisture in. The best moisturizer in my entire experience is a light oil rub down, right after shower. Just before you towel off, shake a couple of drops of oil (coconut) on to your wet palm, rub vigorously till the water in your palm and the oil forms a milky emulsion. Spread all over, rub in well. Leave for a  couple of minutes and do a very quick rinse (no soap this time). Pat dry, and you are done.

After several expensive bottles of fancy moisturizers, I found that this simple solution is what works best even in Canadian winter, when your skin turns to parchment and the best of moisturizers turn out to be chemical cocktails (Propylene glycol? Parabens? Acrylamide? No thank you) that don’t work, and very likely are slow-poisoning you.

You can use lighter mineral oils or baby oil if you like, but you are just flushing your money down the loo. That, and I wouldn't trust mineral oils all that much either.


For especially dry skin or patches like knees and elbows, wet the area thoroughly, and rub in lots of warm oil. soak for a few minutes and rinse off. Once every while, a warm castor oil soak is great for even the driest skin. Coconut oil will still work, but the thick, viscous castor oil is an elixir for dry, flaky skin. Remember that oil itself will not moisturize - moisture is essentially water. So wet the area well first. 

From the money angle, a 200 ml coconut oil bottle (Parachute and similar) costs roughly Rs. 30. A 200 ml bottle of moisturizer costs anywhere from 3 to 10 times as much, depending upon the brand.


So give the intense therapy silky pearl body milk cocoon BS a rest, and grab a bottle of trusty old CO at the grocer's.

The Red Tapes did it.

I am really not much of an accumulator of things. Or so I thought. I have always worn simple, comfortable clothes, almost no jewellery. My slippers and shoes are comfortable, sturdy.

I look around me at girls who seem to live on retail binging, and I snort in derision and feel superior.

I only wear cotton, and the kind that doesn't need starching. The fabric softens with every wash, becoming incredibly comfortable, if worn down, over time. I shop in Fabindia. My delhi frinds tell me it is awefully overpriced, but it seems ok for Madras, and the fit is perfect. Ingenious too, with pockets everywhere, even in salwars!

Speaking of which, I have salwars in black, white and every shade of beige from ivory to sandalwood, adn I mix-match these with all my kurtis.

And then, upon a whim, I counted the clothing articles I have, an here's my shame list:

50 kurtis of various sizes,

10 salwars,

8 trousers (I have two pairs of jeans, two formal(ish) pants, two cotton pants and 2 capris)

12 assorted stoles

1 silk salwar set

Saris from my wedding that I will never wear.

Footwear:

2 pairs of leather workwear sandals

2 joothies 9from jaipur trip)

2 pairs of black leather shoes

1 pair of adidas sneakers

1 pair of red tape casual shoes.

Too much you say? agree with you.

Not so bad, you say? thanks for being kind.

I think it was finally the red tape shoes that woke me up.

For two years now, I realize I've been on autopilot, buying kurti after comfortable kurti, flats after flats, till I simply have too many clothes and shoes.

I realized I dont need to buy clothes for at least a year. The salwars will probably shred, and if they do, I'll think about replacing them. As for footwear, I don't even need to replace any yet. Ihave two of every kind of footwear I need, and that is that.

On second thoughts, there must be much cheaper ways of getting my kurtis than coughing up the cash in fabindia. The fabric I like is the honest desi weaves that I should find in the open market, and I simply need a tailor to copy my best fitting kurtis and salwars, pockets and all. Thankfully, tailoring is cheap in India.

Bizarrely, the decision to quit shopping actually flooded me with relief. This is not like a diet, requiring discipline and focus. After I quit, i realized that it was the shopping that felt strained and unnatural.