Women and Bathrooms

4th October, 2013

Data compilation is one of the most tedious, boring and time consuming jobs. It requires great concentration because if you miss even a single unit, you might have to start all over again. After spending most of the morning and the afternoon with surveys, I decided to take some time off and take a bath.

The bathroom in Mamaji’s house is dangerous. Two rickety wooden doors and a meter of plastic string are the only things protecting you as you bathe. I avoided taking a bath there for as long as possible, but today, feeling a little courageous, I went to use it. After tying the string as tightly as possible, I started filling my bucket. but a strong gust of wind was all that was required to make my door fly open.  

I then decided to keep as many things as possible in front of the door; bucket full of water, two paint cans and a huge vessel which was kept there. Feeling safe, I started bathing. Suddenly, a man started banging my door. Before I could say something, he managed to push my vessel away. I froze having not even a towel to cover myself. The door was just about to open as I stood shivering.

A lady came running and said something to the man and he left. I couldn’t move for a while. I somehow managed to finish bathing and left as quickly as possible.

The lady who had stopped the man from entering sent a message through one of the girls. Apparently the man thought that his wife was inside the bathroom and wanted to come inside to get something. What outraged me the most was the man’s audacity of pushing open the door just because he thought his wife was inside. Didn’t she deserve some privacy? Couldn’t he just wait for some time? Couldn’t he just ask whether he could come in?

Seething in anger, I left to complete my surveys. This time, instead of asking whether people had bathrooms or not, I asked them to show it to me. I was shocked. In many houses they just had three walls without any doors, many people bathed in the open and a few behind a single wall. In the house I was living in, the bathroom was attached to the kitchen and did not have a door. In fact there was a huge hole in the wall so that anybody could take water from outside, wash his or her legs and then enter the kitchen. Imagine bathing without a door and with people suddenly pushing the hands inside for a lotaful of water.

My angry mind had its Eureka moment while drinking tea at 4:30. Public bathrooms were the answer to this problem. It could have a water line and people could bathe in privacy there. It would be funded by the public and they will take care of its maintenance too.  Delighted at finding a solution, I continued with my surveys.

******

The day starts and ends early in a village. Women wake up at 5, sometimes at 4 and start working. It is pitch dark at 6:30 pm and I have to return to my house for dinner. But today’s journey was different. As I was walking with one of my friends, his mobile torch suddenly switched off. In that moment, both of us saw glow worms at a distance. There were at least a 100 of them buzzing around a huge tree. Excited, I started fumbling around in my bag for my cell phone. I switched on the camera and took a picture. But all that I could capture was complete darkness. I then started fiddling with the settings and took a picture in varying lights, with flash, without flash but I just could not capture the beautiful sight in front of my eyes.

Maybe some moments are meant to be savoured through one’s eyes and not the camera lens. I ditched my night mode settings and just watched.