Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Battle for Water-Loo!!!!!! ;-) :-) Problem of Toilets on Indian Roads!

Hi Friends! Blogging after a long break!
Warning :- If you think that this post is about Napolean Bonaparte, SORRY!

This post is about the importance of clean Loo (Arre! Toilets yaar :-)) and rest areas on the Indian roads.
One of the worst nightmare ;-) for a road traveler in India is the Water less Loos ;-) & Sometimes No Loo :-)  in emergency conditions. Come on friends! Nature's call is inevitable for all humans ,of course for animals too:-) But animals have great privilege of attending their calls any where and any time. ;-) and sadly it is not the case with Human species :-). So it is OK if we discuss it here.Right?
Road Travel is always wonderful,sliding through the mountains,watching different hues of the sky while stuffing the stomach with different varieties of solids and liquids :-) The problem rises only when the bowels start misbehaving because of the strange combinations of input taken due to excitement and good company :-).And If travelers have Health problems like Irritable Bowel syndrome,.......ooooohhh!
That's when we start searching for rest areas,and journey which follows will be a real turbulent one till we find a good one :-) !
If you are real lucky ,then you land up ;-) in a good one, and if stars are not in your favour, .....:-) can expect a tough time.

Trigger for this post : My recent Road Trip to Pilgrimage towns like Pandharpur,Akkalkot,Tulzapur and gangapur (all are near Solapur).These towns are not at all maintained well.Felt bad for being a helpless devotee.Can devote 100 blogs on the negligence of hygiene etc.Real pathetic condition.Let me not digress from the main topic.Toilets.....Highway was beautiful,Scenery around bumpy,spine breaking ;-) roads towards gangapur was lovely.Everything was lovely till I wanted Rajen to stop the car in a good location to attend the nature's call.No rest areas on the roads,even the existing toilets on the roadside on some roadside hotels/dhabas were of such conditions that  I didn't dare to venture there for the fear of filthy maintenance.In rural areas I saw many persons carrying a small pot of water and disappearing into the fields or No man's lands;-) So I  gathered some courage and requested  Rajen to stop in some scenic place ;-) to attend the call.He graciously accepted :-) my request and was about to stop the car in a beautiful ;-) :-) locale ...oooohhhh...a black snake of 3 feet length crossed the road in a speed like that of Usain Bolt's sprint. Reptile phobia in me is so great,and mere thought of getting  kissed by a reptile :-) gave me strength to overcome the emergency situation like a true warrior :-) and at last had to rush into our house at end of the trip:-).
But an after thought on this entire episode leads to a rather different dimension.I had an alternative,i.e., to wait till I reached my house.What about other people in rural areas who don't have clean toilets in their houses.There are many people who die of snake bites during defecation in fields.
We, in India have a huge population of unemployed youth.Why don't we tap their potential in hygiene industry.One solution is to make the jobs lucrative by paying hefty salary to the hygiene workers like sweepers,and persons who maintain toilets. There should be a proper training for these persons ,equip them  with all cleaning accessories and should be taught to use disposable eco friendly hand gloves to safe guard them against diseases.There is no point in building skyscrapers,Tech parks,Swanky shopping malls when we have not cared for the very basic need of rural people of India.Ok Friends! CU in next post!


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