Gamchha, a traveller's best friend

Apart from the essentials like water, food and basic clothing, gamchha tops the list of things that make life easier during travel. To mention a quote I vaguely remember, "A towel gamchha is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker a traveller can have."  

First of all, gamchha is inexpensive. Whether you're short on money or just a miser by heart, gamchha won't hurt your wallet or morale. But that also depends on where you're buying it from. While at wholesale markets they can cost less than half a litre of mineral water, gift shops will quadruple that, twice, and include service charges. 

Gamchha is a harmless inclusion to a traveller's backpack as well. It's so fine you can fit it anywhere. It's also practically weightless. It itself can be used as a satchel if ever you lose your bag and/or are isolated from human civilisation and have to collect dry fruits to survive. 

Its biggest strength is its versatility. Among its many abilities, the most common one and the one it was originally made for is drying oneself. Just bathed in the river that's devoid of any aquatic ecosystem because of fatal contamination or in a lake which is now polluted with your filth? Take a gamchha and wipe yourself dry. Sweaty from a day's walk under the scorching sun or a hike up a hill or you're just a fountain in human form? Mop yourself clean with your gamchha. 

Not just sucking out the external moisture, the opposite is also possible. Let's say you're in an adventurous trek. You're all tired and your body is aching. By sheer fortune you encounter a deep tube well or a pond or a stream too weak and thin to be called a stream. But you don't have the time to take a nice cold shower? Take out your trusted gamchha, dip it in the cold water and you'll get yourself a DIY-gamchha-icepack for the rest of the walk. Put it on your head and you'll feel fresh in no time, and you may also get a fever later on but Napa Extras weren't invented for nothing.

Speaking of putting gamchha on your head, it's a great alternative to the umbrella. Covering your head with a gamchha shields you from the sun, absorbs the occasional sweat and saves you from probable heat strokes. What it can't do is stop the UV rays from entering your body, mutating your cells and causing cancer. Gamchha is no ozone layer. Stop emitting CFCs or use sunscreen, whichever's cheaper.

Gamchha can be used as a quick defence against cold wind as well. If you have swollen, sensitive tonsils or a vulnerable sinus then you know that the sharp winter breeze can prove lethal. In case you defied your mom's orders to pack a "muffler", get your gamchha out immediately. Wrap it tightly around your face, covering your mouth, ears and nostrils. While you battle with death, your travelling companions will admire your new look.

And on that note, let's smoothly transition to the last attribute of gamchha: their use as a fashion statement. Wrap it around your neck and you're a hipster. Wrap it around your forehead and you're a shonar chhele. Wrap it around your whole face while wearing sunglasses and you're either starting your own supremacist group or hiding your ugly face. And let's not forget the sublime checks that adorn the gamchha, representing style and the motherland's heritage at the same time. Preserving gamchha is our duty as patriots. 

Fatiul Huq Sujoy is a tired soul (mostly because of his frail body) who's patiently waiting for Hagrid to appear and tell him, "Ye're a saiyan, lord commander." Suggest him places to travel and food-ventures to take at fb.com/SyedSujoy