Mandi (taking baths, take a swim, wash oneself etc)

Mandi, a simple Malay word which can take many meanings in English, depending on how one does it. Our kampung is located next to the Terengganu river. Our family house is not really on the river bank. It was about 400m away. Although there was flood every year back then when the Terengganu river burst its bank during the monsoon, our house were spared as it was on higher ground. I am not going to talk about the flood or the monsoon this time, although the Monsoon Cup is about three days' away. How did we take our baths back then in the 1950's & 1960's?

All my paternal grandfather's children build their houses around his. There was no piped water supply back then. But my grandfather dug a well near his 'big' house. The well had concrete walls, unlike the open-pit-type used by others. Our routine was that every evening, just before dusk (maghrib time), all of us - my parents and siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts - congregate near the well. There were two timbas (water buckets each attached to a rope) for the well. Families take turns to draw the water from the well and take their baths. Soaps were optional and even one who had soaps used them sparingly and irregularly. While two families were having their baths - mandi di perigi - the others chit chatted on a gerai - wooden platform built about one-a-half foot above ground. Going by the speed, most likely the last few families managed to take their baths well after dark.

In the morning at about 8.00 - 10.00 am, the womenfolk use the well for washing the clothes - a laundromat perhaps hehhee - while gossiping - I presume as I never use the well at that time. Morning baths were done very early at about 6.30 am. And our mid-day mandi were in a different location - talk about that in my later postings.

The well was about 70m from our family house. It passed - back then - my grandfather's banana orchard. I dreaded using the small footpath from the house to and from the well each morning and after dusk as the footpath was unlit and footwear was optional at that time. There were shrubs on each side of the footpath, even on the banana orchard side.

I dreaded too to having to go to the well after all the families had taken their baths, something that I had to do once in a while. I fear the tiger(s), snake(s) and other nocturnal animals or beings. Once I had to take my bath at 8 pm. And I was not in my siblings good book at that time. As soon as I reached the well area, I heard the sound of the timba being used. "Thank God, at least there is someone for company", I muttered to myself. I realised that that was not the case. I threw my sarong onto the gerai and quickly reached for one timba. There was no one there. I knew that one of the many spirits was trying to have fun on me. I was thinking of aborting the mandi but my fear of my father was stronger. So I made quick 'showers' from a few bucketfuls of water from the well, grabbed the sarong from the gerai and ran post-haste back home. Well, the dripping waters and the wet-sarong draping my shivering body provided ample proof to my father that I had indeed taken my bath!

Footnote: the family well had good and clear water supply year-long and it was never dry even during droughts. Unfortunately, after my grandfather's death my sister (mis)uses it as the sewage tank for her imposing house!