Love U lifeline

A little boy in birthday attire ran about chased by his similarly dressed mother who finally managed to catch hold of her target and proceeded to a tear-inducing scrub with a soapy sponge.

Next to them an elderly woman was vigorously scrubbing a teenage girl. A little later, they just exchanged places and the entire procedure was repeated.

I am in jjimjilbang, a traditional Korean bath house surrounded by a plethora of female species, all busy with the business of showering and scrubbing.

Old wrinkled bodies, motherly ones proudly showing off the battle-wounds of child bearing, reed-thin young girls just beginning to sprout bosoms – around me was an assortment of female anatomy. However, what impressed me most was the manner in which these women, in spite of not possessing the perfect bodies in terms of shape or size, were completely at ease with themselves!

Their attitude taught me a very important lesson- if we want others to accept us, it is crucial that first we accept ourselves as we are. We need to love with our bodies rather than craving for that perfect hourglass figure and fretting about the flaws.

A few minutes later, I was attempting to scrub myself with “itaeri tawol” a coarse wiry cloth when a friendly pat on the back made me turn around and ………………in terrified horror, my feet froze for fronting me was none other than Kim-my boss.

Kim was however quite nonchalant. Noticing my inability to scrub myself properly she immediately stepped in. I stood bewildered while she worked up a pearly lather and gave my back a good deserving rub -scrubbing in a manner which resembled scraping off a fish’s scales. Soon the ground near my feet was covered with chunks of dark dull dead skin - 22 years of build up taken off in less than 22 minutes.

“In Korea we do not consider someone a friend unless we have taken a bath together.” Kim added with an indulgent warm smile at the end of the session.

The vigorous rubdown, though it hurt considerably and changed my skin color to that of uncooked steak, restored vitality to my system by opening the pores and leaving me with a light lifting feeling. The entire experience, contrary to my earlier apprehension, was neither sexy nor sexual, but utterly nurturing.

The Korean stance of scrupulous cleaning extends well beyond the surface of the skin and is totally in tune with the indomitable national spirit which focuses on achieving excellence and refuses to rest till it has realized its goal.