KOL BALISH – BENGAL’S GIFT TO THE WORLD

If you are not a Bengali you have no idea what this is. But if you are a Bengali you have grown up with it and you can't even imagine a good night's sleep without hugging your kol balish! The Bongs are a special breed who need to cling on to something not only when they are awake but also when they are fast asleep. So as soon as the mother deserts the child in bed she gently places the child’s hand over this cylindrical pillow, which the latter takes to as his mother and falls in love with it for the rest of his life! This pillow becomes a constant companion in bed of the Bong and he/she embraces it, at times with all four limbs, only because there aren’t any more limbs to spare!

Usually filled with cotton, these side pillows are neither too hard, nor too soft, and the best are those made at home. These long, hot dog shaped pillows, that are used to cuddle or throw your legs on – that’s a “Kol Balish” There’s no way in hell you can enjoy a sound sleep without that. Impossible!

Till today I had considered this kol balish to be a culture bound syndrome of we Bengalis but science is fast catching up with this bit of our culture and now we know that this habit of ours has some distinct health benefits. Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for our long term health. To ensure that we sleep comfortably every night, a good posture is extremely crucial. When we sleep, our muscle mass in our back begins to loosen up over time, and hence a proper sleep posture is all the more essential as misalignment while sleeping places stress on the spine.

Unfortunately, not many of us give much thought to our posture before going to sleep. We simply use a couple of pillows to relax our heads on and then doze off. But do you often wake up with an aching back or sore knees? Then, maybe your sleep posture isn’t right, and you are missing a kol-balish. By adding a pillow between your knees can truly help your posture by keeping your pelvis in line and also improve your sleep quality.

 

The Science behind the kol-balish

1. It improves blood circulation in your lower body.  Sleeping with a pillow between your legs will ensure that your feet are slightly elevated and hence help in promoting blood circulation more naturally through your lower extremities - from the hip to the toes. Sleeping alternately on the two sides would allow both the legs to assume an elevated position alternately. Also, once you make this into a habit, you will notice that you won’t be waking up with numb legs or any tingling sensation between the feet as the blood circulation in that area would improve.

2. It helps reduce pressure and muscle tension on your lower back. If you are a sound sleeper and sleep on the side, it is more than likely that your knees knock together throughout the night. This isn’t particularly good for your body as your knees gravitating towards each other can cause a lot of muscle strain in your lower back and hips and eventually lead to back pain. This happens because your legs pull from your spine when your knees knock together. Placing a pillow between your legs helps to maintain the knees on top of one another. This can help prevent your knees from gravitating together while keeping your hips aligned, thereby reducing muscle tension on your back. This significantly reduces muscle cramps, varicose veins, and sciatica pain. Make sure, however, that the pillow stretches comfortably from your knees to your ankles. This will help keep them in line with each other.

3. It helps maintain normal spinal alignment and prevents your hips from rotating. Side sleeping can pull the spine out of alignment and the additional pressure on the sciatic nerves could leave you uncomfortable with pain all night. We must remember here that our spines are not a straight line and have a natural S-curve that assists flexibility and balance. As your hips rotate while sleeping, your spine can twist into an unaligned position. You can realign your back into a neutral position by placing a pillow between your legs. This will ensure that your back is neither flat nor arched and that your top leg doesn’t fall over your bottom one. Another benefit of this is that your legs and pelvis will be at the same level. The pillow should be placed between the knees in a way that it elevates the whole lower leg, and supports the thigh. This will reduce pain in the hips and back.

4. Kol balish ideal for pregnant women. Finding a comfortable position to sleep during pregnancy can be quite a challenge. Placing a pillow between the legs or knees in that phase can help alleviate some of the pressure on their spine. This will be quite helpful given the extra stress a woman’s back has to endure during pregnancy. Also, the pillow in between the legs will help promote better posture for pregnant women as it aligns the spine and hips better and delicately redistributes their weight to ensure their body maintains good circulation. Alternately one leg or the other can be rested on the pillow and achieve elevated position. With the help of this, they can surely hope to have a more comfortable night’s sleep.

 

The commercial angle:

Even the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation understands the importance of kol balish. They have decided to pamper their visitors by adding the very typical and much-loved kol balish to their bed décor. When a customer survey was done in this region the result showed how people attached importance to these side pillows. This is the reason why WBTDC decided to introduce these in their renovated rooms. WBTDC officials stated that this will introduce people to a quirky habit of Bengalis, along with the state’s handlooms, food and handicraft.

 

So you can see it is not just that the Bengalis have a constant need for slacking off. Yes, Bengalis love to relax and shops often close in the afternoons for a quick ‘ghoom’ or power nap or siesta but the kol balish is most required early in the morning when the trauma of leaving it is just unbearable. A Bengali craves for its company every single minute and longs to go back home and hug it for a good night’s sleep more than anything else.