I have often been ridiculed by my kith and kin when I claim, “One bucket of

water is enough to have a good bath!” Breaking invariably into peals of derisive laughter, they ask agape, “How come?”

There exists an easy mantra to go by: seal hermetically your shower and abolish permanently your bathtub; get swiftly into the ‘ecological and economical’ habit of using a bucket and a mug instead (after all, there is no disgrace in being tight-wad while using water!), and minimise the use of soap and shampoo. Armed with no stronger argument, they go tight-lipped, understandably.

Well, one may enjoy pouring oodles of splashes of cool water on one’s sticky body, especially

after a hot day’s escapade in the grungy streets of Kathmandu.

Similarly, on a freezing winter day, one may gamely opt for a prolonged hot shower in a chic bathroom. While some may have a penchant for bathtub and Jacuzzi, others may just wish to splash through the gentle, blue waves in a swimming pool. But all this extravagant use of water — so rare a commodity — should send any humane person on a guilt trip: I am one of those responsible for the shortage of water!

As far as I am concerned, the one-bucket-water-bath strategy is a proven success: no one has told me — oh, you are such a lot of stink! Or you are sporting dots of dandruff in your hair.

Or you have dirt stuck in your nails — so on and so forth. One bucket of water does all the magic to make us look prim and trim, and keep us relaxed. Moreover, it spares us from deriving a guilty pleasure of misusing water, which is the basis of the life-giving fluids of living organisms.

A commoner’s common plight in Kathmandu is that when he or she turns on the tap, he or she is often greeted with a mocking ‘hiss’ from the dry ‘mouth’ of the tap. Even one bucket of water sometimes becomes a cherished dream.

However, the quantity is by no means to be underestimated as, in the very near future, apart from taking a bath, we may have to do the cooking as well as the washing — with just a bucket of water. And that’s not necessarily impossible: a bucket of water can do magic provided a mug is used as a magical wand.