Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/122

 Indian students. In such a room you would find a table, three or four chairs, an easy chair, a wash-stand with all the requisites, a hearth, a chest of drawers, probably a book-case, cupboard, a carpet, a bedstead with bed-sheets and blankets, a looking-glass, etc. Are Indian students used to better-furnished rooms? Indeed, a raw Indian not used to the two rooms would be quite enchanted with such a room and would not wish for a better one. When I first saw my room in the Victoria Hotel, I thought I could pass a lifetime in that room. It is always best to find out a room in the neighbourhood of a place to be frequented most by you. Thereby a great deal of money required in travelling by bus or tram is saved. Secondly, as to other expenses, e.g., washing, bathing, etc. Your washerman' s bill need not amount to more than 11 pence per week, which is as follows: d 1 Flannel shirt 2 1 Drawers 2 1 Vest 2 2 Handkerchiefs 1 1 Sleeping suit 4 Total 11 d A saving can be effected in the above if you do not use the drawers which you need not, in summer especially. The sleeping suits may be changed fortnightly. Moreover, with a little care, a good washerman can be found who would wash the drawers and suits for 1 1/2d each and sleeping suits for 3 d. If and when you wear the white shirts regularly for a week, instead of the flannel shirt, the washerman's bill would be heavier by 6 or 8d. But under no circumstances should it amount to more than 11d per week on an average. As to bathing, it is only in the newly-built houses that bathrooms are attached to them. In ordinary houses no bath-rooms can be found. In such cases very many visit the public baths weekly which cost 6d or 4d. But it is possible to have a daily bath without any expense wherever you go. You can take a sponge bath with two or three tumblers of hot water always to be supplied at your request by the landlady in the morning. You can pour water into your basin, dip a sponge in it and rub hard with the sponge twice or thrice and then rub the body with a dry towel, and you have taken a very nice bath which gives a glow to the body and keeps it clean. Even the sponge may be left