On my recent trip to Iceland, I bought the only available brand of soap from a local supermarket. It was simply called 'Neutral' (it's a Unilever product). When I used it, I realized that not only is it Ph neutral, it neither had any color nor any perfume. If lovers' conversations are sweet nothings, the smell of this 'Neutral' soap had to be unpleasant nothings! I hated it, but my ever-thrifty Indian genes kicked in and I had to discard thoughts of discarding the soaps! I brought them back with me. However, here, in Sweden, I have a problem. I'm slightly over-stocked on soap! Over-stocked? How's that, you ask? You see, I love soaps with strong perfume and my favorite brand of soap is an Indian one called Cinthol. Now, before I left for Sweden, I must have been really terrified at the prospect of not being able to bathe with my favorite soap. So terrified that I bought twelve hundred grams of it, yes, that's twelve large soap bars! Maybe I thought I'd run through one bar each month and gave myself enough to last me for a year. However, upon reaching here, I used one of the many sagely tips offered by and used a sponge to place the soap upon, instead of a using a conventional soap box. This seemingly innocuous tip has resulted in my soaps lasting three times longer! They don't melt away into goop anymore! This means that my twelve bars will now last me three damn years. The three bars of Neutral soap that I bought in Iceland? They are slightly smaller, so I guess they'll last me another six months! I have soap stocks for three and a half years! That makes a legitimate SADP (Soap Armageddon Doomsday Prepper). Yup, when the aliens land on Earth and completely divert chemicals used for soap manufacture into their sinister initiatives, I can still enjoy bathing in real soap for a long time! I might even auction off a bar or two from my collection to really rich survivors who'd be willing to pay anything just to have a bar of soap in their hands again! Ah, the stuff of dreams! :D

The ghastly 'Neutral' soap. No, it wasn't the opportunity to save INR 21 that suckered me to buy such a stockpile! My thatha (grandfather) seems to be laughing at my idiocy, in the background!