I Went to Bed Smelling Like Dettol (standard:Creative non-fiction, 1038 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Jul 22 2012	Views/Reads: 3475/2085	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Dettol is a strong chemical smelling universal antibacterial solution kept at every household. Juggernaut receives a whole body bath with Dettol from his mother to clense his body after he came in comtact with a vendor with a chronic infectious diesease

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Maha Lakshmi temple were taken over by the vendors selling flowers, 

coconuts and all kinds of trinkets mostly celebrating Goddess Maha 

Lakshmi and St. Ann. Just around the corner in an open area several 

horses were let loose to rest during the night time by their owners 

that operate horse-drawn buggies in town.  The smell of horse dung was 

intense in the evening hours when worshippers crowd the area, in 

comparison the smell of dung from roaming cows was less intense; this 

could be something to do with difference in digestion process between 

horse stomach and cow stomach or perhaps people were more accustomed to 

the smells of fresh cow down often seen on the streets. Only recently 

the horses were removed to make space for more shops. 

During one of the visits to worship Maha Lakshmi, Juggernaut 

requested his mother to let him go shop for jockey shorts at nearby 

street vendor.  Juggernaut always wanted yellow jockey shorts since all 

his jockey shorts were white and his mother never allowed having him a 

colored one, she believed that white is clean. 

“How much is that yellow underwear?” asked young Juggernaut 

looking at jockey shorts in various bright colors wrapped in plastic 

bags spread on the side-walk.” 

“Well, you have to buy a packet with two shorts, you cannot 

buy one,” said the woman vendor.  Juggernaut purchased a pair of yellow 

jockey shorts for the very first time in his life.  Meanwhile, his 

mother reached him at the vendor. 

“You paid too much for those ugly underwear; have you 

bargained before you purchased?” asked Juggernaut's mother and started 

argument with the vendor for overcharging and demanded a refund. 

Suddenly a man came out from behind a large card-board box defending 

his wife over the price and exchanged nasty words with Juggernaut's 

mother. The brawl attracted several on-lookers taking sides while 

Juggernaut stood in silent embarrassed for the situation; at the end, 

the vendor agreed to take back the yellow jockey shorts with partial 

refund. 

“Do you notice the man's fingers were disfigured from 

leprosy?” Juggernaut's mother was upset. 

“I did not saw that man until you came here, his wife was 

doing all the business.” 

“Well, leprosy is contagious and I need to keep this return 

money separate and you sit on the floor of the rickshaw on the way 

home, you hear,” Juggernaut's mother was angry. 

On reaching home, she went straight to medicine cabinet for 

Dettol, amber colored transparent liquid most households keep a bottle 

handy as an all-purpose disinfectant.  She added few drops of Dettol 

into a bucket of warm water, instantly the amber colored droplets 

turned milky white as it mixed with water emitting strong chemical 

smell.  She washed Juggernaut from head to toe several times using 

Dettol water, then she washed the money received from the vendor with 

Dettol and left it to dry. That night Juggernaut went to bed smelling 

like Dettol. 

Several years later, while studying college organic chemistry, 

Juggernaut learned that Dettol is a phenolic compound with 

antimicrobial properties introduced in India for household use in early 

1900's. 

Several decades later, now living on the Big Island in Hawaii, 

one evening while wandering in a swimwear store Juggernaut's attention 

caught bright yellow underwear on a rack, on close examination those 

were night-glowing bright yellow jockey shorts, he always wants to 

have; his memories went all the way back when in he was in early teens 

wanted to have yellow jockey shorts only ended up having a full-body 

wash with Dettol water. “Well, now I can buy and wear bright yellow 

jockey shorts and walk around glowing bright yellow over the tide-pools 

during dusk,” thought Juggernaut picking up a pair of night-glowing 

bright yellow jockey shorts. 


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