Skip to main content

To Pee Or Not To Pee


If the heading seems awkward, think how it actually came into a writer’s mind! Well it’s not a big or as strange a story as it may appear. If you are an Indian you wouldn’t fail to notice how our open flowing drains and dark corners of any pathway has been a toilet for men in urge, throughout the decades. Or, let’s say since one can remember. Quite a spectacular view it makes under broad day light, men happily relieving themselves wherever they feel like. May not be so spectacular, because we are used to it! Think about the visitors. Tourists. Now, does it seem awkward? Well, it should. Since we are all used to the phenomenal practice of men peeing wherever they feel like, it doesn’t mean we have to live with it till the end of time. But the public toilets that are built around our cities, let’s come down to Kolkata itself, are pay and use. While some are free, maybe that’s the reason the stench reaches you a mile before you cross it. They are still unable to cure the male urinary bladders trying to blast off just around the corner. It may sound like a chauvinistic view from a feminist, but how will a person react if he/she comes face to face with an irony, like, a man peeing on the wall just outside a public toilet!  Arguments can be that, he ran out of change to pay, for pay and use. Then another fact can be that if he at all intended to use the public lavatory, he would have known that when you run out of change or coins, they anyway let you use the toilet.
See, that was the whole point behind this. Indian men just do not intend to use a public toilet which is more private than giving a peek-a-boo of their, you know what, to any passerby. The back walls of any public building, public hospital, government offices, the corners of sidewalks, and even the walls beside the busiest metro stations are all stained. The smell and the view, 2-3 men standing in a row doing their rightful business, can easily nauseate any healthy person. Even then I believe not a single person have vomited seeing or smelling (read- tolerating the smell). And why so? Simple. We’re used to it. Accustomed. Habituated. Grown up seeing it. The real spectacle would be to see those depository banks of urine, cleaned up and never get back to that fate again.
Am I promoting Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan! Not exactly. Just trying to bring to the kind notice of the male species of human race in India, specially Kolkata, that peeing should actually be a private and hygienic practice. While I tried my best to hurt the male ego with all this, another attempt would be a question:
Have you ever seen a woman peeing by the roadside or at the corner of a sidewalk or near the drains or just happily relieving herself while ten thousand people pass her by? It won’t really hurt to consider some civic sense.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Children of the Dark

 Feeding the minds, The innocent minds, Their toxic thoughts To turn them dark. Their poison dipped words And venoms combine, Turn their minds Turn them dark. They are gibberish grandiose; Striking a pose, Spoken in a voice so very deep; Children of the dark fear and weep. Fear my Children, Fear the Dark Lords, They come dressed in light; The light's a cloak. Black is their colour, they are colouring your soul. Biting through your flesh, Turning you cold. Fear my Children, Fear the Dark Lords, They will feast on your flesh, And crush your soul.
5 comments
Read more

The Moon

There’s a Moon above my head and it shines so bright. I stare in amazement and curiosity and delight. I have questions to ask; and I think I might. But when I try to ask, he bids me goodnight. There’s a Moon above my head and it shines so bright. I say, “Mr. Moon, being snooty is not right!” He smiles down at me, for he is polite. He says, “Dear girl, don’t judge me, alright! I have to fight the darkness to shine so bright.” “Oh Moon above my head! Can you sing me a song?” “Because, night is here and far away is the dawn.” So, Moon sings to me, the song of the Sun. The one who lives with desires, but none. There’s a Moon above my head and all his brightness fades. I ask him, “Why?” He says, “Dark shadows invade.” “Slowly each day, by piece I am torn. Only the Sun puts me together and I am reborn.” “Oh Moon above my head! Does the Sun possess all might?” “Dear little one”, he says, “He is the most generous and bright.” “He is a humble giv...
2 comments
Read more

Ambition’s Long Race

To start with, career, ambition, job, promotion, salary hike and high position in any organization, are the requirements of life that take the priority seats and everything else has to travel third class. The competition, from scoring high marks in schools, colleges, to having a successful career, great paying job and high position in a company, is never ending. One never has enough of anything. We always want more. Sometimes want what others have. Sometimes want to build something of our own. And often end up dissatisfied with ourselves, our own hard work, and doubt our own potential. Who and what to blame? The world only recognizes the competitors and achievers. All the others can live in misery and without an identity. So, where is all this competition taking us? To best positions, to best jobs, to best pay scales or most desirable careers? Actually, mostly to a psychiatrist’s chamber or even hospitals. No, not joking or being a pessimist. It is so common these days that young p...
Post a Comment
Read more