Ashfaq Ahmed, one of Pakistan’s most famous writer and an intellectual, has mentioned several times in his books about receiving uncountable valuable lessons about life from an elderly wise man.
This person, who is mentioned as Baba Jee in Ashfaq Ahmed’s work, is not a literate person but his down to earth knowledge and wisdom is far more greater than of those who are literate.
A friend of mine sent me an excerpt from one of Ashfaq Ahmed’s book yesterday which was about washing dishes. I have translated that excerpt in English and you can read it below:
One day I meet Baba Jee and I asked him to enlighten me. Instead, he asked me a pretty weird question: “Son, have you ever washed dishes?”
This question of his baffled me but I replied: “Yes, I have.”
Baba Jee then asked: “What have you learned from washing dishes?”
I said: “What lesson is to be learnt from washing dishes?”
Baba Jee smiled and said: “Dishes are washed more thoroughly on the inside rather than the outside.”
Added for Word of the Day’s Learning
Blog of Hammad Rais 
Hi Hammad! Wise words, from which I get a deeper meaning – it’s not enough to merely bathe daily and clean the body, we need to cleanse the mind from the inside. What do you think?
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Yes, you are absolutely right. Mind and body both need cleansing, with focus on mind more than body.
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And to go on with Women’s Day (that was only yesterday), it is a task very, very often devolved to women only! 🙂
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You are right. I don’t mind washing dishes but my ladies at home never let me even stand near the kitchen sink. I loved to wash milk feeders of Uzair when he was using them (now, he drink in mugs).
Many tasks, like dish washing and more, shouldn’t be gender wise. We all are capable of doing many things on our own, so why divide certain home based tasks?
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Probably because we live in gender-divided civilisations and cultures. My father used to vacuum the house and was regarded with “interest” by his brothers-in-law. He helped drying the dishes but was not trusted to wash them up. I think that a vacuum cleaner was thought something like an engine and thus “male-worthy”. He was entrusted with the washing machine as well and the tumble drier. Again, they are engines.
Washing-up may be considered as demeaning by men but it may be considered as too delicate to be handed on to them by women.
Things are changing nowadays: In Europe, there are more and more men cooking (and putting plates, pots, pans and dishes in a dishwasher afterwards!). But nobody says if they cook outside the “chef” standards. On the other hand, women are very happy to find ready-made meals and microwaves…
VERY DIFFERENT consideration: thank you very much for introducing me to one of your great authors. I looked up his name and am interested in what he did! 🙂
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You may not believe me if I tell you how far I go in taking care of Uzair, whenever Jia is not around. Though doing dishes or cleaning home is still considered as a woman’s job here, men are catching up fast as you have mentioned. Many popular chefs of Pakistan are males 😁
I’m afraid that you may not be able to find any work of Ashfaq Ahmed in English. Here, we do translate different languages literature into Urdu but seldom goes vice versa.
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Interesting perspective. Missed to see this in spite of having washed dishes thousands of times.
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A great lesson is often learned from smaller things. Isn’t it? 🙂
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👍 Indeed
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