This
news was on the 28th of June 2017 Indian express and the headlines go like
this:
"A
Bihar village has ACs geysers cars but not a single toilet!"
It's
the affluent village of Gaziapur in southern Bihar with most of the 200 hundred
families possessing modern gadgets but lived in a house sans toilets. What
could be the reason? It is as simple as that. SUPERSTITION!! The man who had
the courage to build one in his house 29 years ago lost his younger son for no
rhyme or reason. They fear that building a toilet in a house could lead to
imminent death of a family member! As a by-product of this superstition people
from around are hesitant to give their girls in marriage to the boys of the
village however rich they are!
Our
southern town of Trichy is a bit superior to the Gaziapur affair. In the older
part of the town there are toilets but there is a defect in the placement. They
are right on dot at the end of the front verandah and the smell reverberates
through the open drainage system
When
we were young we promoted ourselves from the open defecation to toilets among
the trees at the back yard of the house. Any untimely urgency at night was the
single problem what with the trees involved in their devilish dance and umpteen
numbers of scary anecdotes by the oldies revolving around them!
When
I came to Chennai for the first time to visit my elder sister, she lived in a
house where many families lived in portions allotted to them but it was a
single toilet for the whole lot. It was underneath the staircase resembling a
cave. The urine smell emanated from the old walls and the stench of beedi
closed on me from all the three sides. In those days smoking beedi inside the
toilet was common to both the sex since the belief was that this process
enhanced of the bowel movement. Coming from the culture of trees speckled
backyard toilets with copious oxygen this Chennai experience was indeed a
breathless one!
It was the late sixties when we got married
and landed in Rajahmundry where my husband was working as an engineer in the Andhra
Praddesh paper mill. Movies were the only entertainment and for a small town
the theatres screened good English movies with two translators near the screen
who would do a perfect job in Telugu (an irritation for the non Telugu group).
Our very first visit to the theatre was an enjoyable one with the Jerry Lewis
movie. As we left the theatre after the show I started screaming "blood
... blood" After some investigation my hubby found out that amidst the
enthusiasm of watching the movie, specially in local lingo, people had used the
theatre floor as a giant paan spittoon!
Till
the end of nineties the city of Bangalore was a joy to behold with its green
foliage and was neither a proliferated jungle of IT companies and nor baptised
as Bengaluru. We were on our leisurely annual visit to the city where we could
traverse the open space sans diesel smell. Near the Cubbon Park there was a
newly built wonder called Sri Kanteerava Indoor Stadium with a pet name given
by the Bangaloreans as "Sree." There was an exhibition going on in
the place then and with our dual purpose of seeing the new wonder too we made a
visit to the place. We were amazed at
the marvel with facilities for multiple sports, rock music and international
and local events! As we were nearing the rear end of the tour we were shocked
by the disgusting odour engulfing the whole area! Yes...you guessed it right.
It was the stench emitted from the rows of toilets of the stadium. We were
highly disappointed. Such a sophisticated place deserved an expert maintenance
team!? But this was decades back. Let us
hope that things have changed for better similar to Chennai theatres!
In
the olden days we used to avoid going to movies in Chennai as the all-pervading
urine stench emanates through the theatre especially after the intermission.
But now theatres are a delight to visit even though we pay through the nose to
watch a movie along with newly introduced GST!
My daughter
in law who was on a professional visit to Theni had some times to visit one of
the numerous waterfalls which dotted the area. She was amazed by the fact that
while the Tamil Nadu side was strewn with rags, dirty clothes, plastic bags,
food waste, the other side which was west of the Kerala border was a pristine
beauty!
It
was a retreat centre in Kerala and when an announcement to the congregation
made my sister hang her head down in shame
“Devotees
from Tamil Nadu please keep your toilets clean" the announcement said “We
have plenty of water." What sort of dirty impression we have created!
It
is small restaurant which we favour during our monthly sojourn to Trichy. It
was not a smelly one with abundant water supply and a bucket full of phenol
with a mug. But the users never care or bother about the next person who has to
enter content with completing their own job. Their dirty shoe and slipper
imprints and unflushed toilets make the place nauseating. Kindness to the
neighbours can be reflected by this small deed of using the health faucet over
the area before we come out! As a lesson learnt from our great saint of India, Mahatma
Gandhi, I always make it a point to make the toilet clean at entry as well as
exit points.
It was a part of a letter to the editor of a
famous English daily from a reader and it goes like this:" Sir I am a
frequent air traveler locally and abroad. What hits you as you land at Chennai
airport is the stench from the toilets In spite of all modernisation no one bothers about the proper maintenance
of this basic amenity which puts the country as a whole in shame." Even
though we are not frequent travelers like the reader we whole heartedly endorse
his views
This
incidence takes the cake!!
It
was an All India women's conference on a beautiful location. At the end of the
first day an emergency meeting was called by team of organisers. To make the
purpose of the meeting very clear all the members of the organising committee
made a dramatic entry to the stage carrying buckets and brooms!
The
owners of the place it seemed are threatening them to vacate their spotless
place then and there and they didn't bother if it was an all India meet of
great importance. Their toilets are stinking beyond words and they wondered how
the group of highly educated women were capable such a dirty job!
“We
begged with them to give us one chance." One of them said “Unless all of
us make a resolution regarding our basic hygiene you can be sure that this
three day conference is a bygone affair."
The
selfishness with which even the educated women behaved was beyond words! But
proper sense prevailed after the dramatic appearance and the conference
continued without a hitch!
As
young children we used to wonder why our dad had hung two aesthetically
decorated and framed words on either side of the alter in the house.
One
talks about the Homely Blessings and the other Homely Virtues.
I
thought it apt to produce the Homely Virtues in the context of this blog.
HOMELY
VIRTUES
The
Beauty of Home Is Cleanliness
The
Honour of Home Is Friendliness
The
Blessing of Home Is Godliness
The Richness of Home Is Cheerfulness
The first stanza let us
add the "tidiness of our toilets" too!