Us desis are known everywhere for our hacks. Be it about skin care or fixing your blown tyre, we’ve got an answer for everything. There’s just so many and each one more unique and bizarre than the rest. Some of them have been passed down in generation after generation with time; it’s just surprising that there aren’t any books on desi hacks already, if there were we’d have updated volumes published every year like math books.
Desis have a history of using natural herbs and spices for everyday usage. The tradition is alive and well, matter of fact it’s pretty much our way of life. So, here are a select few examples, which most of us would already know but for the newbies, this is good as gold.
Using ‘ghee’ instead of lip balms
It’s not just for the morning parathas, but if it’s winter and you’ve got those chapped lips then ghee works just as good. It does the job of a moisturizer and its au natural!
Using yoghurt and egg as a hair mask
White folk would coil away in horror if they found out, but using both egg yolk and yoghurt provide the right kind of nutrients that hair needs and make them silky and smooth. It’s already used in shampoos but that’s all processed and awash with chemicals you can’t even pronounce.
Egg yolk and yoghurt is just old school desi hair treatment and it works all the time.
Using baking soda to remove stain from silver
The soul of every desi household lies in its silverware. The age old collection that we all grew up with and our grandmothers had barred us from touching it making it sanctimonious above all. No touchy.
It’s only used on special occasions when either someone’s getting married or about to. And because it’s only used so little then it loses its sheen and glitz, so the baking soda comes out. It is a natural detergent that is pretty helpful in removing stubborn stains from the silvers and a few minutes of scrupulous rubbing turns it into the spotless gleaming set it once was when it was bought 300 years ago.
Using lemon to remove stains from wood
Furniture too old and smelling a bit mildew? Nephews and nieces and all rugrats practically massacred it with spilled soda and ice cream? Not to worry. Lemon with its acidic nature is useful in removing stains and dirt from wood and making it appear cleaner and shiner. It’s not just for our achaar, it’s for making stainless wood.
Vinegar to clean microwave
When in doubt, use vinegar. That microwave of yours which has been warming up your ghee-laden curry and biryani since forever, if someone were to look at it from inside, it’d be worse than a Jackson Pollock painting.
But we’re serious, vinegar is widely used as a mixture with water to clean the microwave. Just pour a small cup of it and place it into the microwave, hit the timer for 1 min and after letting it evaporate, it just wipes away the stains and spots like we erase memory cards.
Coffee beans to remove bad odor
If we had it our way we’d have used chai to do the trick but, sadly no, it doesn’t. Coffee is the answer as it is used for removing bad odour or when our nostrils are overwhelmed with scents of all kinds.
Coffee is well-known as the ‘refrigerator deodorant’ as it absorbs the breath stopping smell our fridges our known to accumulate over time and short of “breath fresh air” into it.
Like we said earlier, all these DIY hacks made by desis for desis make our lives easier and not only do you save up on expensive repairs or charges but you know there’s always a desi answer for every problem that pops up. If you don’t know, ask your mom if she knows it.
