Let
me be honest, I prefer to be in the accessible range of a clean toilet if I am
stepping out of my house. My friends will vouch for it. A No. 1 job is
manageable but for a No. 2, I would rather go home. Why is it that most of
these commonly and genuinely necessary facilities are either not available in a
public setting or not in a usability state for even the remotely hygiene
conscious.
I
remember, as a child I was often asked to use the bathroom before we stepped
out. Be it to go to the movies or to a fair or even a train journey. And the
reason would always be that there may not be toilets available in which case
one has to hold till one comes back home or .....well let's just not say it.
So
all these years I have religiously followed the motto "drain before you
get into a train" before I step out of the house. It has served me well. I
still do so. However on my visits abroad, which are not many, I have relaxed my
own rules as the availability of the aforesaid facilities is high with a good
level of hygiene and so I do not worry much as to what I eat and therefore
where I go.
Anyway
coming back to the subject, it has always intrigued me as to why there are no
toilets or facilities in public places to relieve oneself. Is there no statutory
requirement that there should be such facilities wherever humans are likely to
visit. And even if made available there would invariably be no water or they
would be in a state of compete disrepair. On a recent visit to a national park
within the city, I discovered that the facilities within your reach had either no
roof or no water or were locked. Locked, as I was told by a municipal guard, to
avoid misuse which for some reason is considered worse than being in use. I
think the authorities wanted all visitors to communicate directly with nature
whenever she called. Why bother with a via media and affect the quality of
transmission.
Visit
any old commercial building or public office and you will find these place
bereft of toilets. So where do the staff go when they have to go. Well everyone
uses the wall behind the building would be a common reply. I have not checked
as to where the women staff go but I know a friend who made friends with the
employees of a neighbouring bank and would visit the branch whenever she required. Have
things changed over the years. I am not so sure. My first job was in a firm
with its office in a really old building which just had one common gender non-specific toilet block
on every floor for all the offices on that floor. Being an old building, there
was no room for expansion and there was no water storage facility. It was as
good as not being there. As I moved jobs to a well known company who had its
offices in a relatively new building, I expected a better situation. But that
was not the case. For the roughly 200 employees on the floor, there was
exactly one set of toilet each for the men and women. The men's room had 2
urinals and one potty stall and one wash basin in roughly an area of 40 square
feet. At rush hour which was usually around lunch time it would take a while
just to gain entry. The ladies room was even worse. There would be a queue of
women standing outside waiting for the door to open. I remember my senior, a
lady, who would make umpteen rounds to the ladies room waiting for a chance to
get it. Once she even had the security guard stand outside and to call her the
moment the earlier occupant stepped out.
As
building and overall construction gets fancier, are architects factoring in
more and better toilets and facilities. I don't think so. The only thing
improving is that toilet fittings are getting fancier. In fact the
installations are more of a designer kind. Whether they provide greater
functionality or practicality is highly debatable. It would not be wrong to say
that more functional toilets can be built in the cost incurred for the designer
ones.
That
brings me to the point that how do architects or planners measure the
requirement for fitting some basic facilities. Do they ever consider the number
of persons that are likely to be occupying or visiting a particular place.
Where
the government is encouraging construction of toilets in villages, why are
cities being ignored. Do real estate prices dictate what can be built and what
can be done away with.
I
have a friend who actually visits toilets at every job interview he goes to.
His logic is simple. If he is to spend more time in the office than at home it
better be comfortable. And the condition of the toilet will reflect the
company's attitude towards employee care.
To
me it is clear that toilets are always an afterthought in this nation. So what
if you get UTI, toilets are still a cost center.
Next time toilet etiquette and manners, yeah right!
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