We, the Indians, were among the first ones to have toilets in our homes. Our ancestors had running toilets that would empty into drains/running water channels as early as 3000 BC. Europeans were late starters and yet they gave the world a complete flush system and more importantly, the main stage component that we refer to as WC or Western Commode! If only our ancestors had thought of copyrights and patents in that era, "W" would have probably never stuck around with 'C'.
Today's generation is pretty different but almost half a century back (when we were about to be born) and during the decades that have followed, Indian toilet users (who is not!) have shown preference for the squat version or IC- "I" for Indian, if I may! Many of our country cousins, when faced with an inescapable pressure situation in a WC setting, have been known to be climbing over, risking their hip bones and ankles, to do the task. Of course, they would soil it thoroughly. Even today, many in the hinterland prefer the 'sit down' over the 'sit up' version! Then came someone with a bastardized version (do we name it IWC?) that had both the options built into the one, thereby, screwing up the whole toilet experience.
So, we have all kinds here - those die-hard ones (duly led by a Yoga guru who sees 'C' as a commonality between a commode (WC ie) and constipation; readers and thinkers who like to make best use of time at hand by opting for WC; confused but accommodating types going for IWC in their joint family homes and finally a strange variety who prefers to use IC for long breaks and WC for shorter ones! And yes, how can we ignore the issue of keeping the seat cover up or down...... most of the married ones know it well.
But why the hell am I writing this? Well, I am doing this because of a change that I happened to observe in a 'pressure' situation a few days ago. Recently, while driving back from NCR, I halted at one of the most popular joints on the NH1. A humble eatery (dabha) of yesteryears, it is now a shining joint that is very popular with tourists and travellers alike, not to mention Delhites who travel to Murthal for their bites of tandoori paranthas there. So as not to mix two ends of a biological process, let me stick around with the 'C' here. So there I was in the washroom of the place, joining many fellow countrymen (with women headed to another opening next door) who had gathered to take stock of the crisis situations that had developed due to early morning starts (from Delhi side) or long drives (from the other end). The place, though neat and shiny, was full and if I may say, crowded with old Hindi movie songs playing in the background. There were travellers, tourists, drivers, passengers - people of all sorts of age groups and from many strata of the society congregated at a place of great relief and release.
Beyond the wash basins, a hall had two rows of toilets - ICs on one side and WCs on the other flank. Because of the rush, a good number of people under pressure had been lurking outside the doors of such toilets, awaiting their turns. Being one of them, as I stood amidst the crowd of like-tummy people, I observed a changed phenomenon. Despite people from different backgrounds present there, there was an obvious preference for the WCs! In fact, after a while, some of the ICs became vacant and yet remained unoccupied with users preferring to wait for the next WC to fall vacant! To me, that was a paradigm shift.
We may, at the face of it, attribute such a trend to 'build up' rather than 'about to burst' state of pressure but what I felt was a bit different. To me, it appeared to be the case of increased preference for WCs over ICs when a certain degree of neatness and hygiene is being assured. Given the right kind of environment, most of us would go for it unlike yesteryears when it would be the last resort for most of us. If you were to say yes to my hypothesis, could we conclude that we, the Indians, have finally started to lean towards WCs, having climbed on it and having soiled it during transitory phase!
