WASHING SOAP

 WASHING SOAP

If our times have witnessed an expansion in variety form and shape, easily washing soaps deserve being recalled. Times were when we had known only one kind, the yellow medium slab called the Sunlight.  That was the lone brand across India in cities and towns till late 1960s and beyond. Abruptly a new product named RINSO  stormed the market. Its format was quite new to Indian households in that it was in tiny flakes –a revolution from the rubbing version the soap cake. Later a competitor to RINSO was POINT another flake format. These were attractive to use as they would readily dissolve and enough to soak the linen for sometime before washing. Women felt relieved from the laborious act of individual attention to clothes. I am recalling the manual washing schedules as washing machines were then mere ‘hearsay’ items..For several years it was the situation in India. BY 1969 or so M/S TATA introduced a blue coloured detergent cake ‘BONUS’. This brand easily swept the market by its lavish lather and detergent action in cleaning dirt from fabric. Practically for about a year or more ‘BONUS’ kept most other brands at bay; however Hindustan Lever sprang a surprise by their version of detergent –RIN. Over a short time since introduction RIN  turned the most popular and keeps going still after nearly half- a century; Not that there have not been other brands; there have been some like SURF . Both RIN and SURF always have had powder versions too as by late 1970s and after more households installed washing machines as domestic gadgets as the item was recognized a necessity from its earlier status of a luxury.  Friends, so far we have just been recalling names of national brands on the trade.  It does not mean that there were no regional or local brands. There have always been a host of them ranging in names from that of an animal or bird or beetle to that of the ultimate –the Lord. This part of the information would be far more challenging to recall a host of names most of them confined to districts, yet had a glorious market due to their affordability to the  then poor Indian public who made use of local rivers for bathing and washing. Despite their low-cost, those soaps used to give off rich lather ideal to convince the consumer. Those days, the most common material was cotton widely used by men and women. Those materials should be washed well to maintain optimum quality. But, politicians of different hues used to use more of cotton material as a  mere sign of supporting  the weaver populations,/ as an apparent expression of austerity. As mentioned earlier , local brands did have a patronage. Let us recall them . When we were in our school days local versions of washing soaps were dispensed aslengthy bars measuring a foot and a half or more with short segments marked by ruling at distances of about 2+ inches. Buyers could have the whole bar or segments thereof.  The shopkeepers seldom used knives to cut the segments. Using a slender jute thread held taut around the right segment length would pull the thread ends from a side. The thread pulled so would simply cut through the soap shearing it at the right length.  These brands were either CAMEL or SIVAN. They too had two versions- the traditional whitish gold or a Violet one. To me its tint was more violent than any violet. The violet was so user-friendly that it would cling onto any surface be it your palm or dress or the rough stone at the river edge where dirty linen is washed by physical abrasion on to the rock. Similar versions of Madurai were marketed by CHELLAM soap company,  had a mega presence in the district. To keep the cotton fabric, presentably neat , a final soak in blue tint was done using a powder of that colour. In local par lance, it was KURUVI neelam.

Its brand name was Ultra marine Robin blue with the bird as the brand mark. Later, ever so many names have sprung up albeit their local presence. Some of them are ‘Pon vandu’, Discound , Powerlite, and several fake ones bearing the names of popular brands.. Incidentally washing soda has disappeared from the market having been replaced by some bleaching liquids marketed on brand names. The washing powder range for washing machines is far beyond the limited comprehension of the author.                       Prof. K. Raman