Anecdote #48

Laundry Time

The warm and bright sun shone upon Cambridge today. It was our last class for Approaches to International Security in the 21st Century and we had an assessment the next day. We were given revision time from 9 to 12 in the day and hence the first half of the day went in preparation for the assessment. After lunch we had our last session for the week. Doubts were cleared and we also had an informal interaction with our professor, Dr. Ayse Zarakol. It was extremely gracious of her to create an environment where we could raise our doubts anytime and encouraged discussions in the class.

Today was a unique for another reason. I did my own laundry for the very first time! Although it does not seem to be an immense achievement, it was definitely empowering to be self sufficient. My laundry story was an interesting one too. The Indian girl next door had promised that we’d do laundry together. That morning I had confirmed with her that we would go to Benson court (a beautiful complex where accommodation had been arranged but we were not lucky enough to get it) where the laundry room was. On the first day she had been sweet enough to say that I did not have to buy detergent as she had brought some with her. After classes I called her up to do laundry and it turns out she had gone for shopping and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. 

Honestly I was a little irritated. I had a test the next day and wanted to get done with the laundry as fast as I could. With her gone now I would have waste another twenty minutes in getting the detergent. More than the detergent I was relying upon her support to help me with the machine, after all it was my first time. Yes I have never washed my clothes in my life. Heck I didn’t even fold them myself. This made me more anxious about the laundry than test on the following day. When I reached the supermarket to buy the detergent, I found out that in the UK Ariel detergent (which I use at home) is available in the form of pods which apparently disintegrated in the tumbler. It was madly perplexing, I had never seen this before and spent a good ten minutes mulling over the packaging.

Why is God taking the test of my life I thought to myself. Even the detergent was not normal. As I was at the cashier thinking about video calling mom from the laundry room for help it suddenly struck me that Xintong lived in Benson! I rang her up quickly and she was extremely forthcoming.The moment I walked inside she rushed and carried my laundry bag, she could see that I was struggling. This small act of kindness helped me get over my woes.Though she too was a novice like me, she was kind enough to ask her friend how to use the machine and taught me. I was full of gratitude and deep in my heart felt that she was God sent.

The clothes were in the machine now and there was some time to kill. I couldn’t study in the laundry room so the natural alternative was to call each member of my family and tell them about my astonishing feat. I know it was rather silly of me but I felt a sense of freedom, accomplishment and empowerment. 

After successfully phoning all the Malhotras and taking out my clothes from the washing machine, dryer and folding them methodically I headed for dinner.I shared my adventures for the day with my friends and by now I was laughing about the entire experience. It’s funny how a bit of time can change your perspective. The chore had started out as a challenge but became memorable by the end of it.

I was thoroughly satisfied with day and I realised that being in Cambridge taught me how productive I could be in a day and balance studies with chores. From being a damsel in distress and having no knowledge of house chores, I was improving and that did wonders for my confidence.