Showers

Only Thursdays and Sundays. In boarding school, we showered only on Thursdays and Sundays – no matter the season.

The washroom was situated in the basement, below the locker room. It consisted of rows upon rows of wash basins, like apple trees in an orchard. As you descended from the stairs of the locker room, the showers were situated on the extreme right of the hall, in two rows of about 20 showers in each, parallel to the washbasins. The showers were turned on and off together. There were no walls between the showers, so in essence the water falling on you while you showered was a mixture of the shower in the front and behind, and either the left or the right depending on where you stood.

The showers were controlled from the front using a turn wheel knob on a huge vertical pipe that fed them waters. This knob was controlled by Harish, the helper who was responsible for taking care of our needs in the locker room. In a different time, place and situation, the turning of this knob could have equally spewed lethal gas from the showers, but here in boarding school, were were always treated with reliable hot water.

As boarders changed into their bath robes and swimming trunks, they filtered into the washroom and lined up in two rows, to join the next batch of showerers. Then upon cue from the warden, when the previous batch had cleared the space out, a new batch would move in taking their place below a shower head. Each shower head had its own age, and character in how water reached and sprayed from it. Some showered reliable good quantities, while others sputtered and sprayed thin lines in only certain directions. Either way, we learned to either call our shower spots in advance if we reached before the others in the next batch or accept whatever the water gods had in store for us that day. Depending on which Thursday or Sunday, your changing speed in the locker room and which showers were booked in advance when you reached the queue, showering was a differrent experience every time. Except for the ten that were worth fighting for, every other shower head was underwhelmingly the same.

The showers ran for about a minute, after which they turned into a thicker stream of water for about 10 seconds which gave us the opportunity to collect some in a mug for later use. We got another minute to soap and shampoo using the collected water, and then another minute of hot water to clean the soap off. You got to shower only once. Unless the warden noticed that the soap had not washed off, and would allow you to come in again with the next batch. This happened rarely, but was always nice when it did. This second time you showered, without feeling pressured to collect water in the mug, just slowly swaying under the shower head – any shower head, as if dancing to some slow jazz in the background. If the warden did not feel the need to grant a second shower, the boys usually used cold water from the sink to wash any leftover soap.

It took about an hour for all the 350 something boarders to shower. On Sundays, this was followed by a movie. On a thursday, one went to the study hall.