Hindustan Times
The loo situation
If men ever found out how much time and energy women spend mulling about loos when they travel, they’d be flabbergasted. But the fact is, that in a place like India, where public loos are few and far in between, and uniformly filthy, this is an important concern.
It doesn’t help that the male half of the species considers the entire country its toilet. How many times have I taken the night bus to Goa and spent hours squirming in agony even as male passengers merely tapped the conductor on the shoulder and got him to stop the bus when they had to go. And I’ve lost count of the times I’ve imposed the you-go-when-we-can-go rule on male co-travellers on a roadtrip and had it triumphantly flouted!
So important a concern is it, that women often have mental maps of the country in terms of the kind of loos. In Gujarat, a friend exclaimed after a recent trip, there are loos everywhere on the highway. In North India, petrol pumps will have loos and they will always be locked. In Andaman and Nicobar, the loos are far and few, but then so are the villages, but always clean.
Everyone finds their own ways to deal with the situation. Some avoid drinking water during a roadtrip, while others always carry hand sanitiser. Some just avoid the loos all together and try to find a thick bush to crouch behind. But show me a woman traveller who’s not thought about the subject and I’ll chew my shoe.
Oddly enough, no matter how inured you think you become, you’re bound to encounter a loo that makes you want to shut down all your senses. Almost like there an evil loo monster out there who sees it as a personal challenge to throw in your way a toilet that will stop you dead.
I encountered my nemesis in Mahendranagar, a small town in Nepal near its western border with India. We reached the town late in the night and the only guesthouse there was fully occupied by that time. We finally found room in a little dormitory, five beds to a room and common loos. We walked into the room and flung open the window, only to find it bricked up. Heading to the loo to wash up after a day’s travel, I found myself trying to make my way through what were figuratively walls of brutal smell. I never made by way beyond the loo door; you don’t want to know what I saw there.
None of us went to the loo that night, or the next morning. I avoided drinking water the entire time. The next day, we woke up at 4 am and left at first light. We crossed into India, and headed straight to Khatima where my father had arranged for us to visit he guesthouse of a factory. Who’d have ever thought I’d be abusing my father’s connections for access to a clean loo?!
For travel updates through the week, follow me on Twitter. I’m @nehadara
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analysisa Reply:
May 16th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Another thumbs up to Narendra Modi, and thumbs down to North India!! We northners deserve this
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