A Cotton Towel and its roller-coaster journey

After taking a bath today, I looked for my towel behind the door and couldn’t find it. I asked my wife where my cotton towel was. She replied that she had given it for washing and would get a fresh one for me. Drying oneself with a fresh cotton towel after a bath is quite a refreshing experience. It feels as if you have washed your sins of the past and are ready to commit new ones.

A mechanical life

While hanging the towel on the clothesline in the sun today, I thought about how boring the life of a cotton towel is. It has to go through the same rigmarole every day. Hanging behind a bathroom door or on a hook below the kitchen shelf, it is ready to wipe the water from your body or the dust from the cooking shelf or the dining table. In the process, it sacrifices its dryness, becomes wet, and returns to the clothesline to get dry again.

Similarly, we also follow the same routine every day. We get up with a fresh mind to face the world, absorb a lot of stress during the day, get tired by the evening, and go to sleep to get refreshed again. The one thing that is common to both is that they have to be ready to absorb a lot.

The socioeconomic class among cotton towels

One fine morning, after the lady of the house had completed all her daily household chores, the bathing towel, the kitchen towel, and the floor cleaning mop (pocha in hindi), found themselves hanging on the same clothesline under the sun. The bathing towel normally occupies the center stage as it considers itself belonging to the upper echelons of society. On the sideline was the kitchen towel which despite being a workhorse doesn’t have much choice in selecting a premium space on the clothesline. The floor mop that does all the menial jobs like cleaning the dirty floor is generally relegated to the extreme corner of the clothesline.

A strong summer breeze made all the hanging clothes fly and suddenly the cotton towel found itself wrapped in the arms of the floor mop. Sandwiched in between was the poor kitchen towel gasping for breath and shouting for help. The cotton towel just pushed the floor mop aside saying that she will have to take a bath again. The kitchen towel feeling exasperated also had a similar feeling as it had to get ready for its afternoon chores of cleaning utensils post lunch. The poor mop’s apologies fell on deaf ears.

The cotton towel that couldn’t resist the lure of a fashion world

There was a time when the cotton towels carried staid prints. They had stripes or checks on their borders and were more functional (meaning they were used only for cleaning or drying). However, as society progressed the cotton towels also started coming in new avatars. The dull cotton towel got a designer makeover. They are now available in beautiful patterns in various colors from purple to pink and magenta to indigo. From 100% cotton to now eco-friendly bamboo, towels have come a long way.

A cotton towel can help identify a person’s profession

If you enter a restaurant or a dhaba and looking for a waiter to place your order, just call the person who is carrying a cotton towel on his shoulder. The waiter will come running around wiping his hands with the towel. On the other hand, if you enter a top bureaucrat’s office and want to know about his character then look at the towel covering his chair. If it’s a plain white cotton towel then you are going to deal with somebody who believes in black and white and if it’s a colored one then you are dealing with somebody who believes in red tape.

People who have enjoyed watching a serial called “Panchayat” on Prime Video would have got a glimpse of rural India. One of the main characters in the series the deputy Pradhan (the no 2 in a village administrative body called Panchayat) was always carrying a towel on his shoulder also called “Gamcha” in rural India. Gamchas are traditional, two-meter multi-colored coarse towels used by men as shoulder scarves. Believe me, a gamcha is a sign of power on this side of the country.

Last but not least you will find towels used frequently by your favorite cab drivers. They have a 6 feet towel that covers their entire seat giving them respite from the treacherous summer heat. It’s a separate issue that the towel still fails to keep their temperature in control.

The Ms Universe Towel Association organizes a Beauty contest

A beauty contest was held in a metropolitan city in India to honor the most utility-based cotton towel. Participants from various categories participated in it ranging from swimming pool towels to bathroom towels to kitchen towels. Each participant was asked a question. The one with the most meaningful answer would be the winner.

The Swimming pool towel

With its blue stripes and glamorous look the pool towel was the first one to be invited to the dais. On being asked why she should be crowned the beauty pageant simply replied – I am the one who wraps the most beautiful bodies coming out of the pool. I give them cover at most strategic points and shield them not only from the ultraviolet rays but also from a few dubious eyes.

The Bathroom cotton towel

The next turn was of our simple bathroom towel. Always hanging behind a bathroom door the cotton towel knew that she didn’t have a chance against such glamourous contestants. But still, she was not low on confidence. Her reply was clear! I clean wet bodies and make them dry. I clean their dirt and make them feel refreshed thereby giving them confidence to face the world daily. The world will stop working if I am not there.

The Kitchen towel

There was a big boo from the audience when they heard about the next contestant – the kitchen towel.  The kitchen towel knew that she had an unglamorous role and her chance of winning was probably zero. Still, this did not deter her from the path. She confidently said that the crown should be hers as it is she who is responsible for maintaining the hygiene in the kitchen. If she was not there maybe the utensils on the dining table would not shine sprinkling white. Also, nobody could take away the role she played during the covid times when hygiene in the kitchen became the topmost priority in every household across the world. The judges were impressed.

The Shoulder towel

The Shoulder towel was also one of the contestants. Her claim to fame was that she wiped the sweat of people. People think that being on a shoulder is easy but to shoulder the responsibility of keeping sweat-free is a difficult one.

The Gym Towel

The last contestant was the Gym towel. On being asked why she thinks she should be crowned her answer was “I am taking care of people’s health”. I wipe sweat not only from their foreheads but also from their underarms and palms making them ready for the next weight-lifting round. This mechanical answer didn’t impress the judges much.

A half-an-hour break and the results were announced. The bathing towel had won while the kitchen towel was the runner-up.

The moral of the story is that if you have a utility in this world, you will always score over glamour. So always make yourself useful to others.

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