Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Your Shit is Your Responsibility ! :| !

There are three things which are the most personal of all issues revolving around every individual - One is Religious Preference - Which interpretation of God to follow. Two is Sexual Orientation- Left to the will of the individual. Three is - WHAT YOU DO INSIDE A LOO [ Considering only the loos with a door, latch in place and with no hidden cameras :P] It is true. What you do inside a loo is your business. How you use it, is your business. But in the end, your shit is your responsibility. Its frustrating to even think of the fact that people treat the public lavatories with all contempt of royalty, leaving it "unflushed", assuming that someone's gonna take responsibility for their shit... Drives me nuts! The immediate line of reasoning would be, may be these people are from the village and aren't used to the "toilets". Well, be it the village or a city, the shit is the same. The Cleansing agent (Water) is the same. Only the place is going to be different. My point is, why can't people use the loo, and take a look at the place, before they quit the place, thrusting the shit-cleaning responsibility to someone else ? If everybody makes it a habit to develop clean loo habits, then there are chances of seeing cleaner toilets in the suburb Bus stands, cleaner toilets in the ever stinking railway networks..The only problem one can probably take into account is the "dry", "rusty" taps. Even if the taps don't function, there is usually a tank right outside the public toilet, stored with water. I've seen this water filled tank in many public toilets. Despite this, why are the toilets a mess all the time? What is wrong in developing a clean habit? What does the system need ,to solve this problem of nasty public toilets? Well, from what I've seen, its not just the public toilets which are in a devastating state... What you are at home, you ought to be better when you are outside. So only if the clean habits exist inside a household will it reflect on the sense of personal hygiene when a person steps out of the house. The only solution is to bring up kids the proper way. It's a simple process. Teach the kids to "take a look" before stepping out of the loo. Do all that you can, to clean the mess. If every individual can take care of their shit, then soon we'd probably see a better India. India would escape the cynicism of the Brits. India would escape being called "that poor country". India would stop featuring in "world cinema" - for its harsh reality alone, ignorant of its beauty. Though this post is all about "Shit", it is small things like this, which when corrected, can save us from getting into "Deep Shit" !! *All pun intended!* :D :D :D

3 comments:

Sindhu said...

This is different from the rest of your posts. No dbt!! But then, speaking of the tanks that you've mentioned, you must've taken a second look at them! They are the dirtiest things in the world! None would feel like even touchin em. But in the first place, ppl who use these public toilets are responsible for the 'state of the art' [;)]conditions of these tanks. I like your solution. Probably, youtube already has it. That I dunno! But still, it ll take eons for ppl to change, even if these habits are inculcated from childhood. On that note, it's hightime we witnessed another Messiah or an Anniyan ;)

Sharanya Rajendran said...

Yeah, I know it's a SHITTY ISSUE! ;-)
Absolutely second your outburst! Few people lack 'common sense'...be it flushing the shit or shitting the shit! Such irresponsibility will lead us to problems!

I loved your last line...! ;) Ange dhan nee nikara!! :P

Gangadharan said...

Shit is not only our responsibility but responsibility of the Govt.too. In public toilets the reality of the situation is that the contractors try to save money by not providing sufficient water for cleaning oneself as well as the WC. If there is adequate supply of water, no problem in cleaning. In private toilets ie at homes/offices the users keep the tap on and complete their “job”. They use the loos for reading(without disturbance) newspapers ,novels ,magazines etc.Very few use- and- pay public toilets have water tap facility and in majority the user has to use buckets. The contractors provide water in buckets (with a small hole which acts as “timer” to prevent the users from using the toilets for longer than necessary).It is the responsibility of the contractor to clean the toilet (In Michael Jackson’s words ... "to make it a better place" ) after every use. Perhaps this condition can be seen if one gets access to the contractual terms on which one is appointed. Who bothers if one of the conditions in the contract is breached …. You may say the Civic Authorities are responsible to ensure running of hygienic toilets .In the event of deficiency in service,the prospective user has no time to demand cleaning before use….He has to tolerate and get it done away with AQAP(as quickly as possible in view of the timer!!). He cannot even approach a consumer forum for redressing his grievance.One or two brave citizens may file Public Interest Petition before Hon’ble courts and get some relief. With courts issuing orders , the civic authorities take appropriate action , things may seem to improve for some time. The situation will return to ‘normal’ within few days till the time by which another Citizen takes it upon himself the task of "crusading for cleaner toilets". Any number of PILs cannot clean the shit /rot in the public system. The authorities who have banned smoking in public places should include toilets in then list of public places, so that the next user does not have to suffocate and blame his stomach for such a precarious situation. As you rightly pointed out , only when every one realizes his/ her responsibility, things will improve and people will take a liking to the public toilets and may even develop and improve their reading habits, even in public toilets enjoying the ambience !!!

Stumped!

This happens whenever I take a train from Chennai to Bangalore (Ahem..read as whenever I travel alone!). After taking consecutive modes of ...