USING UNUSED ITEMS

USING UNUSED ITEMS

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

01/XI/2022

 

            Let me ask you friends, what is the most “unused” thing lying in your house today. Clothes... maybe, gifts… could be. However, some things must have been lying for some time. One does open an old trunk occasionally, looks at its contents and keeps them back for posterity. I shall not discuss that.

 

            Let me give a hint. It comes in a bottle of all shapes and sizes. Some of us may have gallons of them, hiding somewhere in the closet. “Kab kaam aa jaye.” Some still keep it because, “emergency main kaam ayega.” Few of us, for fear of the virus, used it like hell. When the scare subsided, they thought ‘Mile na mile baad main’ and kept it ‘sambhaal ke.’ Now those bottles & cans gather dust.

 

            Another hint, they smell good. Some with floral scents, some scentless and they even come in various colours. Some are ‘liquidy,’ some are ‘viscous’ but from the antiseptic smell initially there was an improvement in their odour as time went by.

 

            There were dispensers all over the place. Even homes had them. Anyone coming from outside had no choice but to apply it as a ritual. Maid servants were the happiest, as they could go without washing their hands with soap but could be reprimanded for not using this.

 

            It is the “Hand Sanitizer.” There would be one in the pocket, one in the car, both in the dashboard and rear seats. Any packet picked up from the market was bathed in sanitizer. The house smelt like a hospital corridor. Though most government hospitals smell more of Urine.

 

            We were no exception. The paranoia of catching the virus had caught on like wildfire. Somehow, the use of a sanitizer was conveyed to people so emphatically that they would not use a helmet or a seat belt but not forget to use a sanitizer.

 

            Best part was when use of these were made mandatory. Dispensers were put at every possible point. If it was free, people used it liberally. Given a chance, they could apply it to all exposed body parts especially when nobody was watching, it would be rubbed and sprayed over clothes as well. Earlier we heard medical equipment being sanitized, now you had human beings roaming around as fully sanitized bodies. As I usually say, Mufat ka Chandan, ghis mere Nandan.

 

            One still sees people using this God sent liquid but in most of our cases it has now gone into the closets to rest. How long would the effectiveness last beyond the laid down expiry date as printed on it? One is not sure, but it being an antiseptic kind of a thing, it should not lose its potency that fast.

 

            So, all you people, dig those sanitizer bottles and start using it before you must throw them away. One should not carry that guilty feeling of ‘kaam nahi aya’ or ‘paisa barbad kiya.’ Now that this product is available freely off the shelf and online, I found another way of putting the unused ones to use before they expire.

 

            The other day, one was inspecting the hibiscus bushes. One of them was severely infested with ‘mealy bugs. Had we neglected it a little more, they were chances we could have lost a dear plant. Instead of getting hold of the traditional ‘neem oil’ and ‘hair shampoo’ concoction, I pulled out this sanitizer spray which I discovered lying unused for a long time.

 

            Results were there to see by the evening. The bugs were dead and falling off the plant. Though, one had to prune quite a bit of the infected portions but the remaining hidden bugs had to be traced and put to rest. They can hide everywhere, especially behind leaves & in crevasses of buds etc.

 

            We do not recommend you to do the same, but just sharing the way we made use of old and unused sanitizer resting in peace after the deadly scare of the C virus which most of us caught at some point of time. I wish and pray the C virus does not return in that intensity ever again.

 

Should we preserve unused sanitizers for later use? I wonder!!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS