"When
you consider the contributions that toilets make to the quality
of our lives,
then much of the other things that we do just seem so much
less significant."
Quote
1883 source anonymous
One thing i have noticed with the scriptwriters - a standard
way of portraying the war of the sexes is to show a wife complaining
to her husband for not keeping the Toilet seat down.. (don’t
worry this is not yet another article on man and woman relationship).
I have found this to be rather amusing. Though on my own I
have never paid much attention to the issue I have not been
able to understand the obsession the first world countries
have with Toilet seats. And I am only guessing here because
I would never actually make this an issue of contention with
people I know(lest the final strand holding my sanity be deemed
broken).
Flying from New York to half way across the world,and viewing
the contrasting toilet habits in the bustling cosmopolition
city of Mumbai,the buisness and movie center of a nation of
a 1000 million(whew), it strikes you -the different cultural
habits that can be acquired staying in different places ,evolving
customs and rituals on the basis of sheer need. It would be
interesting to retrace the acquired toilet habits in different
places.
Focusing ofcourse solely on Loo-istic behaviour here
one doesn't find it a lot different at the airport or
a 4 star hotel that are well suited to the needs of
foriegners. But if u delve in to local habits one finds
that they are quite different from the way the Englsih
or the Americans do it. The concept of using a tissue
paper would be totally alien to most Iindians. The traditional
way of cleaning one's ass after completing the act is
to use a mug full of water. The actual process being
that u hold the mug in one hand and and use the other
for the actual cleaning. I wonder if it isn't the more
sanitable option, after all a piece of paper can't possibly
clean it all of (otherwise we would be using tissue
papers instead of showers even). The hands do get dirty
ofcourse but thats why you have soaps.
I guess if that is the case then the First Worldian's
probably like to have clean hands trying to keep them
completely unscathed while the larger part of Indians
probably likes to keep their asses spik and span.
If u go across India you will find more interesting
Loo-Istic behavior. While for most Indians having a
private bathroom itself might be a distant dream with
most of them making do with standing in long lines with
mugs of water in hand or quietly going outside to the
nearest isolated place with sufficient bushes and trees
to give the necessary cover though they won’t
necessarily hesitate even if its in open view. The sitting
arrangement is to sit on ur haunches (probably the most
authentically human way of excreting ). And infact this
is also the arrangement that is used in a lot of Indian
houses with the western pot as they call it probably
less preferred to the tiled hole with slabs on the side.
A more recent innovation it seems in India is where
the need for a mug full of water is obliviated and the
water comes in from a pipe fitted into the pot to aim
at ur crack.
It woudlnt at all be a bad idea to review our toilet
habits and see the benefits of alternate ways of of
handling our selves on the toilet seats. Maybe the the
toilets themselves need a change. Many a yoga magzines
have started advertsisng these tiled toilets where u
sit on ur haunches hailing it to be anti-constipatory.
And with all things indians barging in to the rest of
the world it only seems right now to out source toilet
habits from India, besides the computer whiz's and cab
drivers.
I am set wondering now as too what the Chinese do (very
little literature is available on communist shitting
habits). I guess as for the rest of the world it would
be right to assume that they follow the First world
Loo-istic style. Maybe with the exception of Africa
with their black butts and all and Pakistanis surely
blowing nuclear bombs just below their asses to piss
India off. A more recent video footage shows Osama firing
an AK-47 to clean his butt.
As my my job is then I have given all you a little tidbit
to chew on(eeeuww) while u are in the loo the next time.
