Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Loos Talk




The Arabs call it (or so I’m told) “the-room-where-everyone-goes”. In their case, it doesn’t make sense. I mean, why would nomadic tribes, with several thousand square kilometres of awe-inspiring desert to poop in, start building privies in the first place? (Not to mention the water issues .. yecchhh) Perhaps they used Port-a-Potties? So much for
Rudolf Valentino!

* Time out for short film …

Arab caravan lurches over the horizon, shadows black under the desert sun … camera moves in slowly … craggy features, far-seeing eyes crinkled against the sun… aforesaid far-seeing eyes light up as a speck appears afar and draws closer … much pointing and gesticulation and … TA-DAA-DA-DAAA, T.E. Lawrence emerges heroically over the dunes, motorcycle and sidecar heading a plume of dust .. but wait, wait, that’s too TALL to be a side-car, that’s too BIG, it’s .. it’s a … PORT-A-POTTY!

General hubbub, Arabs leap off camels and race each other towards it, groping in their robes for the equivalent of 25 Eurocents. OST from David Lean film builds towards a crescendo. Peter O’ Toole tries to look heroic and magnanimous even though he really looks as if he Needs to Go.

Meanwhile, Omar Sharif has shot the three men who got there ahead of him and is the first one into the Port-a-Potty. Exultant yells and other less polite noises emerge.
Camels look at each other with Very Camel Expressions … they reach a consensus and (all together now!) demonstrate in unison why they Do Not Need to Go in That Thing. The desert reeks ...*

Overcome with emotion at the grandeur of the spectacle, one takes a Short Break from Blogging …

**** **** ****

The Arabian Desert is still a whole lot better than the Indian Highway. Miles and miles of super-smooth six-lane asphalt, and what does one have when one needs some relief? Hello, George! (Some of the snazzier stretches of highway these days - now do NOT say ‘Bombay – Pune’, because it’s just Not True - actually have Rest Stops. Oh joy.)

Back in the dark ages (like even July last year, actually), the Comfort Stop was one of the great issues in the Battle of the Sexes, at least in India. Men had it comparatively easy, even though it takes a little time to work out the issues of protocol (Does one tell a chauffeur to pull over at the next big tree? If he needs to go as well, does one look for a site with multiple waterable poles or does one assume he will wait his turn? When he gets back, how does one stop worrying about whether he washed his hands?)

(Speaking of last July - Cuffe Parade to Lokhandwala took all of four hours. Four of us in the car, with a 4-year-old. By the time we got there, our social graces were reduced to "Pleased-to-meet-you where's-the-bathroom?" The valiant child deserves a better balladeer than Ms. Hemans.)

When there are Wimmin in the car, confusion is worse compounded. There is the Woman who will Not Go but will make you feel like a Slug because you are a Male and Unfairly Endowed. There is the Woman who will Fidget until you stop at every second shop and ask (usually in a guilty mumble, as if you’re asking about smutty pictures) whether there is a loo available. There is the Woman who will Make Do with Adequate Shrubbery but You-Have-To-Stand-Guard, even if this is the only scrub between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer and it’s 9 at night in December. There is even the Woman who Doesn’t Give a Damn and will Go Anywhere, short of letting fly out of the window.

The dice are loaded unfairly against women in this respect. I sympathise. Sometimes, after a few beers, I even empathise. What I refuse to do any more is Stand Guard. I cannot, however, escape the Awful Responsibility of Scouting for Suitable Shrubs.

A piece of advice for young people who are still undecided on career choices: don’t even dream of being a Shrub Spotter. There’s no future in it. One is always caught in the middle, between the Person at the Wheel who shouts because it’s too late to stop at that particular shrub and the Woman who Can’t Hold It In Any More (as in, WHY can’t you tell us a little earlier?!?! Yes, like I’m Superman and I have a special GPRS to locate suitable cover from 10 miles away!)

A further piece of advice – when she says she wants another Coke, dissuade her. You know why.

***** ***** *****

12 comments:

Itineranting said...

What are the chances, that I'm reading this post and people are cracking up around me, coz a colleague just flushed her mobile down the automatic potty..."I mean it just fell from my hand...and got swallowed..and I stood there watching helplessly"

Jay said...

Just how short is this Short Break?

eM said...

Soooooooo unfair.
What is the point of Good Male Friend, I ask you, if they don't stand guard? I would for them...
:)

Anonymous said...

:)

Heh Heh said...

aha. I am not sure about the "no future in it" bit. Shrub spotting and Standing Guard are sometimes rewarded with love.

Anonymous said...

:) Amusing.

Madame Mahima said...

good one :P
come on...why cant you stand guard...i mean every woman needs a big strong man to stand guard..while she's um..tinkling.

tinkling???

yea tinkling..cant find a more nicer word for it.

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Itinerant - so blog about it! Btw, about "Meghe dhaka taaraa", try Pink Floyd. Obscured by Clouds? A Delicate Sound of Thunder?

Jay - it was just a Comfort Break

Benoit - thank you, kind Sir. Next time, bring your friends. (You wouldn't happen to have an uncle named Dominique? If so, I have a bone to pick with him)

eM, tell me when somebody takes you up on that offer!

Anonymous, wordless smiles makes me nervous. Speak up, please.

Fingeek, I'm sure the story of your romance will echo down the ages. Can you imagine Prithviraj Chauhan making the cut because he Stood Guard? On a more serious note, would you stand guard for someone you weren't rather fond of in the first place? Shrub Spotting, of course, is a communal activity accompanied by vast hilarity among people with larger bladders.

Ashwin - *polite inclination of the head*

J.A.P.

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Mahi Ve (there, I gave in to temptation THIS time!), you brought up the Devil's Number on my counter ... 666. An omen, I do believe.

J.A.P.

Anonymous said...

I have this zesty, feisty, great-aunt, over 80 years old and all of 4'11" who has bridged this gender divide by adopting a more traditional dress code whilst on long journeys.... one sari, no undie.
and so, she simply hops off the car, stands behind a shrub (legs VERY wide apart presumably) and waves cheerily to doting family / bewildered passers-by whilst she err... waters the plants.

Sibyl said...

Oh, J.A.P, you have touched upon a subject close to my, er, heart.

Many a time mine acquaitances have had to hear the story of how I and a woman friend held in our liquidity problems for hours on an overnight bus from Bangalore to Udipi. At Udipi, after I barged into a restaurant and loudly (and brashly) asked for the loo, we were directed to a place that was such a wasteland that even our natural bladder instincts disappared. We then easily held on for another 2 hours or so until we reached Manipal.

On my last trip to India though, I was happy to find that many petrol pumps had clean loos! And God bless Australia for printing at street corners how many metres away the next loo is!

Progga said...

Try going in the dark, in the gunk between a police chowki and a line of stalls, with the possibility of policemen and / or stall wallahs shining a torch on you at any given moment. I promise you, it adds another dimension to the great outdoors. Especially when Somebody Refuses to Stand Guard.