Chandni S Chandel

I Recently realised the joy of small things when I met an octogenarian on an unplanned visit to an acquaintance’s house in a Shimla suburb. I saw the prowess of his frugal innovation in a big copper utensil transfixed around a tandoor pipe in the kitchen-cum-sitting area. The heat of the tandoor pipe as it makes its way up warms up water in the modified water container, which also heats the entire room. The story behind its innovation is all the more interesting.

The now 80-plus innovator had discovered a copper hamam in the bylanes of Pune he visited as part of a farmers’ delegation in 1985 when he was in his fifties. He had thought that the hamam could be modified and fitted on his tandoor to serve a useful purpose. Costing about Rs 500 then, he wished to buy it but to bring it home so far from there was a challenge. Locals told him that he could get it in a Mumbai market too, which was his next destination, and from there he could ferry it by train. As luck would have it, he couldn’t find it in Mumbai. He returned empty-handed, his heart still stuck on the hamam.

He happened to visit Pune again after 17 years as part of a religious trip with some relatives. Still eyeing the hamam, when he started from home, he surreptitiously and coyly carried Rs 5,000 in his ‘chor pocket’ in case he sets his gaze on the hamam again. Behold, he found it! The problem this time round was that he had a band of relatives along with him and they also wanted the hamam for their homes. They had only one vehicle, how would it carry three-four hamams! But he wanted it most desperately, and lovingly too. He bought it, got it packed nicely and shoved it between the baggage on the vehicle’s carrier.

Mission accomplished, he thought. After 22 years, his stinging desire seemed to be finally on way to fruition, but when the luggage was unloaded everybody wondered what was in that big jute bag. The relatives were infuriated: ‘Why didn’t you tell us? We also wanted it!’ They didn’t talk to him for the next few years as a mark of protest.

And now, 13 years down the line since it was bought and 35 years after the inception of the idea, the hamam with little modifications shines with grace and aplomb, piggybacking the tandoor, as family members, young and old, huddle around the tandoor to get the warmth of the fire, and hot water too.

Once a visitor from Maharashtra visited their place and told them it’s called a ‘bum’. His grandchild immediately responded and acknowledged, ‘Bum mein hai dum!’