Sunday, March 15, 2020 DECCAN

ANHERA
RALD 5

SundayHerald ARTICULATIONS
Survival ofthe fittest
No recognisable creatures can survive in the Dead Sea,
which means no jumping dolphins, no swimming fish,
and no seaweed to get stuck between your toes. The
massive levels of salt prevent the existence of all life
forms, except some bacteria discovered in recent years.

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS HUMOUR

Lo and behold
loo mann
nners!
C
ouple of months back while
attending a workshop,
I wanted to use the re-
stroom urgently. Guided by a lady
employee and walking through a
mini maze, I finally reached the THE LOO TUTORIAL
Dead Sea place.
On the door, was a huge poster
FINALLY ENDED WHEN
I REACHED THE DOOR,

I
felt like I was in a cocoon of tran-
quillity
ty. An overall soothing feel-
ing wrapped me and even though
I was surrounded by people, I
couldn’t hear them. I felt solely
connected to the sea. That is the magic
of fl
floating in the Dead Sea in Israel. It is
the earth’s lowest point.
From a distance, the sand was
brown and as I started approaching
the water, it got interspersed with
white sand. The temperature on
the periphery was cold and the salt
was quite crusty and hard here. As I
walked inside the sea, the salt got soft
and resembled edible salt in texture.
The water got warmer.
You can float or walk in the water
which has an oily texture since it
contains numerous minerals. There
are a number of hotels located within
walking distance from the Dead Sea.
Most of them have their own desig-
nated areas where beach chairs, sun
decks and cabanas have been set up
for guests to soak in the wellness vibe
of the sea. Bath robes and towels are
provided by these hotels and there is
a facility for open air showers near
the sea. It is recommended to take
a shower every 20 minutes as the
sea water is extremely saline. Dead
Sea water is more saline than ocean
water.
It’s mined
After this surreal experience, I was
curious to learn about the wellness
products which are made using Dead
Sea mud, salt, plants and water. And
so I headed to the Ahava Products
Visitor Centre for a tour. Ahava is li-
censed to mine mud and salt from the
Dead Sea in Israel.
The tour started with the decom-
missioned mineral salt hooper which
had filled 284,770 salt bags. It was re-
placed in 1992 by semi-automatic
filling machines. I learnt that there
is a seaweed that grows in the sea
which helps in skin exfoliation while
the culture sourced from the Apple
of Sodom tree has an anti-wrinkle
effect. It took five years of research
to perfect the culture. As I walked
around, I saw the multi-layered mud
ALIVEATDEADSEA
The Dead Sea in Israel is a powerhouse of wellness, writes
Khursheed Dinshaw
Chunky Dead Sea mud
that is mined in chunks from the
northern side of the Dead Sea. Its
inner layers were grey in colour while
the outer layer was brown in colour.
This mud, which contains numer-
ous minerals, is mined every few
months and stored in containers. It
is then filtered and Dead Sea water
is added to it. The minerals in the
mud are easily absorbed by the skin.
By improving blood circulation, the
mud nourishes the skin leaving it
soft and smooth. It also treats skin
conditions. The visitor centre also
offers Dead Sea bath salts which are
ten times more concentrated than
other sea salts and contain over 40
minerals.
Minerals galore
Some of these minerals include cal-
cium, magnesium, potassium, iron
and zinc. These bath salts are recom-
mended for reducing skin problems
and relieving pain caused by rheu-
matism. They also reduce swelling in
Apple of Sodom tree. PHOTOS BY AUTHOR
feet and stiff muscles. Natural Dead
Sea salt can be sprinkled on food for
added flavour. In Israel, this rich salt
comes in a variety of flavours. You
can choose from hot chilli pepper,
garlic and ginger, orange and chilli,
mint and sun-dried tomato, organic
dill, organic rosemary and one which
even has merlot wine in the salt. The
golden Dead Sea salt comes with ed-
ible gold colour while more unusual
ingredients with the salt include truf-
fle, seaweed and black carbon.
bearing the title ‘Loo Manners’.
Well, it was a list of command-
ments which had to be kept in
mind before entering. As I was
in a great hurry, I zoomed past
and went in at my own risk. Once
inside, I had to spend some pre-
cious seconds searching for some
light as it was pretty dark. I no-
ticed a small switch to my right
hidden with a paper.
After tapping the switch/pa-
per several times, a bright light
flashed over a note which read…
…‘turn me off when you leave’.
Hurriedly, I attended to nature’s
call and saw the next instruc-
tion behind, that read… ‘Use less
water and leave the place dry
for the next person’. Baffled by
this, I turned off the flush soon
enough for the written directive
to be satisfied by my quick reac-
tion. Now, I was getting better at
this. I turned around to the tap
which posed the third challenge
bearing the jotting … ‘Wash your
hands but do not waste water.’
How does one get this right? I
responded to this by washing
hands and allowing least possible
drops slipping out. This was like
a game for me with clues pasted
everywhere in the room. When I
was getting ready to wipe hands,
the paper towel had a line which
read, ‘Use less paper and save
the environment’. I did comply
to their demand by wiping hands
with my own handkerchief. The
loo tutorial finally ended when
I reached the door, which bore a
note saying, ‘Smile….you’ll be on
camera once you exit.’
Though I have seen instruc-
tions in many restrooms, this
was a tad bit too much for a small
room with tags everywhere.
WHICH BORE A NOTE
SAYING, ‘SMILE….YOU’LL
BE ON CAMERA ONCE
YOU EXIT.’
After getting back, I couldn’t
help turning back to look at all
the faces which came out of the
restroom. The expression on
their faces surely made me smile
all the way back home. When
I narrated this to everyone at
home, all burst into laughter and
had only one concern... whether
I used the washroom or returned
after reading the list of Do’s and
Don’ts.
This reminded me of an
incident back in our good old
Airforce days when we hosted
dinner parties at home.
It was on one such day, when
before entering the kitchen, I
went around the house to see
whether everything was in order
and so, just to be careful that my
kids do not soil the freshly hung
towels in the washroom, I put
a small post-it on it which read
‘Don’t use’ for them.
That evening, the party went
off perfectly as planned. The
next morning, after waking up
from my slumber, as I crawled
into the restroom, I found the
two towels hanging neatly side-
by-side untouched and with the
post-it still on. I can still vividly
recall that embarrassed look on
my face.
Till today, I am reminded of it
whenever I hang fresh towels for
guests at home.
PRIYA ANAND

Containers where
Dead Sea mud is
stored

Dead Sea bath salts

Kavya M
[ MY TAKE— HIDDEN TREASURE] Girish Rao

The theme for the next photo feature is

‘Perfect moment’ . Submit your entry (one per
person) with your name, a caption, and information
about where you have taken the photo to sundaydh@
gmail.com latest by March 23, 2020
► File size should at least be 500 KB. The subject line for the mail is ‘My Take’.
Abandoned by man,
Shravya Savithri K
adopted by nature
The hidden star Tuluveshara Temple, Basrur,
Andaman Kundapur Taluk

Padmajit Nadagouda Patil Mithun Guddethota

The real treasure is

hidden within us
A pearl in the horizon Playing hide and seek Jenkal Gudda, Sirsi
Saptasagar, Karnataka Kasargod