THE WASHER MAN

               THE WASHER MAN

A washer man is a person who will collect your clothes, wash them, iron them and deliver you back. Apparently there is no other definition of washer man that I know, until recently. I came to know about a man who washes each and everything coming from outside the boundary of his house.

THE PHOBIA

 

A tall, about six feet, dark complexion, lean lithe, bend shoulder with permanent self loathing and pity expression on his face man from Cuttack, Orissa have habit to be hygienic and he keeps himself and his surrounding clean by washing. As I doctor I should appreciate him but on the contrary I am treating him for it.

He is phobic of catching infectious disease and falling terminally ill because of it and it would be the reason for his untimely demise from the world. Making the old adage, “precaution is better than cure” as his golden rule, all he does the whole day is to remain clean and hence keep washing, washing and washing. When I say, he keeps washing everything coming outside the boundary of his house, I don’t say it metamorphic ally but in literal meaning of each every word.

WATER, WATER EVERY WHERE

Our washer man wakes up at four in the morning. Takes his daily bath, duration being one hour in which he scrubs himself from head to toe three to five times. 

He brushes his teeth every time he eats something, whether it be his full prime meals or tiniest morsel of any edible item, the number of times he brushes varies from five to twenty times, sometimes it may even shoot up. And because of this regular frequent brushing his teeth enamel have begin to wear off and his dentist had black listed his teeth as the endanger species but still the brushing continues as always.

He washes his clothes everyday without fail and everyday there are dozens of which are collected for him to wash. The reason being that every time he steps outside his house his clothes become susceptible to dangerous alien environment and carry potential to make him ill, so after completing his errands, he rushes back to his territory, washes his feet from water from water tank fixed at the main gate of his house and then straight away marches to the bathroom to wash and scrub, discarding the old clothes to be washed tomorrow and wearing the new ones. The procedure remains the same even if his going five steps away from his house to nearby shop to buy things of daily use. 

Apart from washing raw vegetables and fruits, another thing that is washed in his house is the currency notes and coins. It doesn’t matter whether they are coming as returned change from the shops, or from cashier of the bank or the ATM, they share the same fate, first being dipped in water, and then clipped on the ropes to be dried in sun and finally being ironed. 

His family members are sick of him as he even makes them wash their hand million times in a day. The worst sufferers are the cooks and servants of the house. He won’t touch his food until he sees water dripping from the hands of his cook while he serves food at the dining table. And servants are kept busy in washing and scrubbing floors, walls, tables of the house and they are made to do it again and again, if someone from outside enters and use the premises, it doesn’t matter who they be {may they be the guests or neighbors or any member of the house who have returned from outside}.

Out of eighteen waking hours in a day this man spends around ten to twelve hours in washing, washing and washing. 

And the credit added to his name is that he happens to be proud and highest payer of water bill of the city in which he lives.

PHRENOLOGY

·       Small forehead – average intelligence

·       Deep horizontal wrinkles covering whole breath of his forehead – carefulness, tendency to worry a lot

·       Small eyebrows – lack of observation

·       Sparse hair growth in his eyebrows - lack of executive qualities

·       High raised eyebrows, dividing the forehead equally in two parts – superstitious, excessive credenciveness

·       Small eyes with its outer angle pointing downwards – persuasive eyes, east to come in talks of other people

·       Long nose – excessive carefulness

·       Pinched nose – {constricted alae nasi, reducing the entry of air} – leading to fear and delusional ideas {in this case phobia of catching infectious disease and dying because of it}

·       Small and lack of fullness in upper lips – indifference to loved ones

·       Lack of fullness of lower lip – feeble digestion leading to accumulation of toxins in the system – feeble thinking and delusional ideas

·       Narrow and sucked cheeks – lack of friendship and hospitality

·       Narrow chin – lack of prudence, unreasonable acts

·       Chin protruding outwards – obstinate

·       Ears protruding forward – superstitious, easily coming in talks of people

REASON BEHIND THE PHOBIA

{HOMOEOPATHIC EXPLANATION}

SYPHILIS is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum.

The primary stage causes the Hunterian chancre {ulcer} on the genitals. The secondary stage leads to rashes on the body and enlarge lymph nodes and mucosal lesions.

The tertiary stage has cardio-vascular and central nervous system involvement leading to degeneration of organs.

This disorder doesn’t end with the life of the diseased human being but is transferred to coming generation, not as the disease personified {meaning that you can’t inoculate Traponema pallidum from any blood or serum sample} but in the form of phobia, obsession and delusions.

This trait being the family heritage is inherited by next generations. The vices of the ancestors become the suffering of the coming generation.

Washing of hands million times a day, catching hold of infectious disease, fear of dying of infectious disease are some of the phobia seen in the people whose family tree shows the exposure of syphilis in prior generations. 

MORAL

Why do we fear dying, when death is inevitable? I once read these lines somewhere, though I don’t recall the name of the author but would like to share with you.

“to every man on this earth,

death cometh soon or late

how can a man die better?

by facing difficult odds

for ashes of his father

for temples of his gods.”