Toilets of India
- stemeillon
- Dec 19, 2024
- 3 min read
I was only in India for a brief two weeks, but during this time I had the opportunity to see many toilets. I'll preface that all of them were in Jaipur except a couple in Vrindavan. To be honest I was expecting worse, although I won't say I was pleasantly surprised either. Similar to Cambodia, many toilets have a "bum gun" spray nozzle. There is often water all over the floor and the toilet seat because of this. On very, very rare occasions there was some toilet paper, and it always goes in a bin and not in the toilet itself. New to me was when there is no hand bidet and no toilet paper. I have a difficult time putting it eloquently so I've quoted WikiHow, although I don't know that it's much better:
To use an Indian bathroom, take off your pants and squat over the toilet with your feet planted firmly on either side. Use the hose or bucket and cup provided in the restroom to pour water on your backside and use your left hand to clean yourself.
First of all I don't recommend completely removing your pants. Then I especially like their mention of planting your feet firmly, as if I have any other option? I don't usually do the Harlem Shuffle while using a pit toilet.
I wrote that down, then realized I didn't know if the Harlem Shuffle is actually a dance or just the song. Turns out it IS a dance and here is a video of a lovely older woman named Shirley and her friends doing said dance. Please enjoy the idea of someone doing that over a squatting toilet.
I digress.
So anyway. Many people use their hands in India. There is, sometimes, soap; I’ll spare you the details. They always use the left hand, which is why it's customary to always and only eat with the right hand (often they eat with their hand instead of forks/spoons/etc). The hardest part of that for me was tearing pieces of chapati (bread kind of like naan) with only one hand. Eating with your hands is MUCH more fun than with a fork and knife and it feels like rebellion against the Queen of England, RIP.
Enough about food we're talking about toilets here! They were typically quite clean, which is what surprised me the most. But it also makes sense; usually they share space with the shower so they have fresh water constantly cleaning the surrounding floor. It was quite common still to find western style toilets, especially because most of the places I visited in Jaipur were more touristy. But yeah in homes and in workshops typically you find squatters.
Oh! One of the most fun little experiences was using a temple bathroom. Since there are no shoes allowed in the temple, they provide a pair of flip-flop-esque sandals for you to wear inside. They were very strange though, I'd never seen sandals like them. There's no strap, just a big doorknob-looking protrusion that you grip between your big toe and pointer toe. Reference the photos.
My least pleasant experience was when some mysterious water, likely just condensation, was dripping on me from above. It made me grimace from ear to ear. Also, in my hostel there were guys that would use our shared dorm bathroom with the door wide open and sometimes just walk around in their underwear which was INCREDIBLY unpleasant.
-fin-
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