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March 23, 2009

Guest Paper*

 

CLEANLINESS

 

 

Cleanliness, is the most important virtue.  It is always, not only for health, but also for the future of any family.

 

Whenever you go out to Look for a Girl for your Son, first look at the house from outside, and the locality as well.  Then, carefully look inside the house, the way Drawing or the Visitors’ Room is set, and the Cleanliness of the Floor.

 

If Visitors’ Room is scented with Sprays and Incense, immediately become Careful. The People are either putting up a Show; or are trying to mask the Stink there.  Yes, they may be trying to hide, and cover up the lack of regular Cleaning and proper Maintenance of the House.

 

If the People in the House are also heavily scented, that means they are most probably not personally hygienic and clean.  They are smelly people, dependent only upon the scents, to pass-off as being acceptable to others.  Or they are Showy People, wanting to smell pleasant to others.

 

If the Mother of the Girl is, and or other Women in the House are, heavily and fully covered with Shawls, or have fully covered themselves complete with the Pallu of their Saris, those need not be signs of Modesty.  Be careful, they may have many things to hide.  May be, they have deceased skin with patches, or wounds etc on their shoulders and necks; or ulcers and sores caused by some disease.  May be, they are without a blouse and topless.  Or, they had been caught totally by surprise when they were half-naked on the top, and hence had quickly covered themselves with the Pallu of their Saris, or some Shawl.  Or, they and their blouses are too dirty that, they themselves are ashamed, and hence had to cover themselves.  It is also quite possible that, they may have not taken baths for many days, and changed their clothes.  Hence, their Blouses and Tops may be black, have dark oil and other stains, to cover which they may be covering themselves fully.

 

Some Girls, Women may stink even from distance, especially their clothes and hair.  That also indicates that, they don’t wash their hair; or they don’t take bath at all regularly, or just do not bathe at all ever.  They may stink very badly, but not realise it themselves, as they have gradually got used to their own stinking Smells, as they began to Stink gradually without taking bath.  The reasons may be shortage of water, non-availability of hot water, simple laziness, total indifference, and an awfully false feeling that their bodies don’t and won’t stink ever, like most other girls and women.

 

When you see the Girl, look at her Nails in hand and also in the legs.  If they are grown up dark dirty distorted and unkempt, that only means that she is not either so careful a Girl, or do not bother about her own basic personal physical Cleanliness of her own body and person.  And it only indicates her poor bad grooming.  She is definitely, not meticulous in her own upkeep and personal hygiene.

 

See thereafter, the upkeep of their Kitchen, Utensils and also the Floor therein.  Look particularly, at the conditions of the Cookers and Frying-Pans.  Note, whether they are clean, or pitch dark like Devils’ Pans, with burnt hardened cakes of oil and Masala mixes sticking on, like dark cement plasters, almost like pan-cakes on both inside and outside, and have become thick, as if it is a mud pan.  That will surely indicate the overall General Cleanliness of all the People in that House, and also the exact Attitudes and total Responsibility, both the Girl and her Mother takes, in maintaining the Kitchen, cleanliness of the utensils, House and surroundings Clean and Hygienic.  The Girl is then bound to be as indifferent as her mother, if not initially when she marries your son, but very soon thereafter.  You definitely don’t want your son to feel miserable in his married life, or the visiting relatives and friends talk ill of your son, his family, his house and about their Cleanliness.

 

If Possible, see also the Bed Room, and look at the Pillows there.  If they are full of clothes lying, hanging here and there, or heaped on to the bed, they only show their carelessness indiscipline; lack of any order discipline and seriousness in the personal life.  If the bedroom, bed sheets and pillows are dirty, almost black; smelly soiled stained with many big yellow and brownish patches, be sure then that the personal physical health and oral hygiene of those People, are bad and poor.  Definitely keep away from them forever, and do not take the Girl for your Son from that House.

 

See then the Dressing Table.  If that is packed with bottles of scents snow Vaseline etc, then be sure the Family and the Girl are big spendthrifts, showy vain people, interested in show and makeups.

 

Hopefully, you have enquired and checked about, the general health of the Girl.  You should also look about the health of her father and mother, and also the size of her brothers and sisters, particularly the married sisters and their children.  Beware, if any of them are skinny, fat and bulky, limping and so on.  They will surely indicate the specific genetic problems, hereditary diseases, congenital defects, or physical disorders in family.  Please check-up also for any symptoms or reported and known cases of mental retardation, other mental illnesses, psychiatric problems, epilepsy, asthma, sugar and BP Complaints in that family.  They are not simple medical issues, but those will make life and future miserable for your son, with heavy financial outlay on doctors medicines hospitalisation and other Medicare.  After all, it is your son’s life, and it is he who is going to live and suffer all along, for a full lifetime in future with the girl.  You definitely don’t want your son to suffer.

 

See finally how she behaves with her brothers and sisters.  If there is any indication that she is very close to them, or too attached and fond of them, be careful and warned, from the very beginning.  She is going to be a Problem even after Marriage.  She will invariably stick close to her family; neglect or totally avoid your family, and not entertain your other children.  Thus, through the marriage of your son with that girl, you run the danger of loosing your son forever to her and her family.

 

Most importantly, look at the number of her friends, and other young boys present in the house, when you go to see her.  That may invite trouble in future, in the relationship between your son and his wife.  So be careful about this Point.

 

Last but not the least, go then to the Bathroom.  Feel if it stinks from outside itself.  Then take a look inside.  See the colour and upkeep of Toilet Seats, whether they are clean, gone yellowish, or become totally dirty and dark.  That is necessary, as that will indicate and show the Girls personal hygiene, cleanliness of her body and even the private parts.  For many girls and women these days, do not bother to wash their bottom after urinating.  They don’t even sit-down to wash their bums clean, after going to toilet.  They just pour, or forcefully splash two three or more mugs of water, on their private parts while standing, come out to dress and apply scents to cover up the smell of Urine, and stink of Faecal Matters in their bottoms.  They pickup such practices and bad habits in schools on seeing the boys standing and urinating.  Or, from the college and hostels from other girls.  Or they get these, from their young childhood days, on seeing their mothers fathers or other women.  Some say and argue, ‘.... if boys and men piss standing, and comeback after shaking their penises to discard all last droplets of urine, why not we girls and women, and myself do like that?’  So such girls and some of the women urinate, in standing position like the boys and men, and come away like that, without washing.  At the most, they may wipe their orifices off, of any wetness, with their skirts.  And thus, they and their skirts smell horribly.  On this aspect alone, you must reject any girl, whatever be the other factors and backgrounds.

 

All the above does not mean or amount to snooping around, and or finding faults, with Girl her mother or her parents, or her family and her house.  But you must get, a basic understanding of the Girl and her Family Background, and reasonably estimate how healthy she will be, how well she will behave and be in future; and how good she will look after your son and their children.  Her Education, Employment, the Positions and Statuses of her Father and perhaps Mother, and their wealth and riches will not show all these, or reveal the future.  Hence, you must make sure of these, as far as possible.  And hence, these are generally, sure indicators of the Girl and her family, and help you to reasonably predict and foresee her behaviour in future.

 

– Pr TS Kalanjali**

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*      Compiled from the Discussions in a small Meeting in Bangalore, encouraged and also facilitated by Social Study Circle, of Small Groups of Concerned Dalit Women, seriously worried now about Emerging Family Problems.

**    Pr (Mrs) TS Kalanjali, is a Trainer of Students and Teachers, who is now posted at present in DIET Rural Bangalore, the District Institute of Education and Training, Bangalore, Govt of Karnataka.  She was earlier the Principal of Bishop Sergeant High School Tumkur, Karnataka; and Lecturer in Teachers Training College Mangalore.  She Specialises in Language and Literature Studies, Human Rights particularly of the SC&ST Dalits and Children, and Environmental Problems.