Sunday, July 17, 2011

No public toilets

Almost once every year, every one faces this problem. One is travelling and one urgently wishes that the vehicle halts right besides a public toilet so that they can relive themselves. The urge is so strong that mind cannot think on any other lines. The message of the bladder is very clear. It cannot sustain the pressure anymore.



Aamir Khan in one of the advertisement of Incredible India shows that it is so pathetic to urinate in public. On one end it sounds so correct: one should not pee in the public. However, the entire scheme of not urinating in public is very preachy. How can one teach a 9-yr old toddler to fight the urge in middle of the highway? How can one blame the truck drivers from taking a break while they are driving long distances? The ad indirectly means the following: Urinating in public is bad. There are no public toilets. So learn bladder control.



There are almost no public toilets on the eastern express Highway. If one gets luckier and finds one, the next bigger issue is cleanliness and hygiene. The only reason one would ever step into one of such hell-like places is because one has no choice. During monsoons the scene becomes even grimmer.



During such moments I always feel like saluting the women power. They don’t have the liberties that guys have. While men are shameless in that they do it wherever they can when the pressure is high, women cannot afford to have that luxury. They are always at the mercy of the public toilets.



I remember an instance where I was the victim of urine infection. In this disease one has to frequently pee. Luckily I was travelling along the Gujarat highway and the driver was extremely merciful. He had to stop the car exactly 9 times in a 5 hour journey and not once did we find a public lavatory.



Moral of the story is that in India they are focusing on building huge towers, buildings, parks and what not. No one is talking about building more hygienic public toilets…