Bucket Baths

Don't knock it till you've tried it

Most Americans are used to their daily ablutions in a shower, whether it's a tub shower or a separate stall. For special occasions to relax or unwind, one might set up a bubble bath. And for the little ones, bath time in the tub is more like play time until they turn into wrinkled prunes.

In India, it's a little different.  Often times, people bathe using a bucket and smaller mug, the size of a measuring cup, while sitting on a stool.  This blog entry won't get into the history of bucket baths, but only a high-level description of what it is.  Taking a bucket bath vs. a shower isn't better or worse; as with everything I'm learning about India, it's just different and is valuable and valid all on its own.

Many bathrooms in India will have their own individual water heater called a geyser (pronounced as geezer, as in 'an old geezer'). Instead of 40-60 gallon heater for a whole home, the geyser may be 10-25 liters for the bathroom.  It also means that hot water may not flow to the kitchen or other bathrooms, though I've been in homes where the one geyser was connected to multiple bathrooms and the kitchen.  The benefits of the geyser is that you have hot water when you need it; the heater isn't trying to constantly keep 40-60 gallons of water at the ready, wasting electricity or gas. The downside is that you have to turn the heater on and wait for the hot water before bathing, so if the clock always lies to you and says you have more time (like it does for me), you could run in to trouble getting ready in the morning. (Note: A slight variation of the geyser is an immersion rod, which you can plug in and place in the bucket to heat the water up.)

Since geysers are geared mostly to bucket baths (more on how to take one later, though it's kind of self-explanatory), it means that they don't allow for very long hot showers. Imagine it being December in Jaipur and its freezing and you can only take a 5 minute hot shower before the water turns frigid.  Eventually I learned to wet myself, turn the water off to suds up, then back on to rinse off.  I thought I was doing something innovative, but apparently this is called a 'navy shower'. 

When I first saw the bucket, I was confused and said 'I'm never using that' (mostly because I didn't know how to) so I stubbornly continued to take showers, even navy showers.  But then I stayed at a place where someone explained the process to me (and a shower wasn't an option).  And it turned out to not be horrible and quite easy (imagine that!). In fact, when I was in Philly and there was a problem with the bathroom shower, I easily adapted to taking a bucket bath out of necessity, telling myself that I'm preparing for India.

Since I've been back in India, there have been times where doing the bucket bath was more feasible than a shower, often times due to low water pressure. And it can be easier to wash natural hair using this method because you can make the hot water last longer.

How to Take a Bucket Bath

1. Fill the bucket with warm water
2. While sitting on the stool, use the mug to take warm water and wet yourself thoroughly
3. Suds up!
4. Use the mug to rinse yourself off
5. You're all clean!

You can check out this Youtube video to see a bucket bath in action. Why wait till you get to India to try it out?  You can start now!