Toilets

Using the toilet is a strange, ritualistic, experience. One that everyone gets used to. Sitting down on a chair to plop a number two is something done in routine. Some wipe standing up, some wipe sitting down, with their right hand, their left. Patterns are formed and never changed.. unless you're traveling.

In developed India, plumbing is not quite sophisticated enough to handle TP, thus a person is required to waste-paper in a bin adjoining the ceramic bowl. On first thought -- not that difficult, but after 19 some-odd-years of pattern-formed sanitation, a herculean effort.

The issue is that going to the bathroom no longer requires thought, so adding in a new step is difficult.

More difficult than the transition from western to eastern toilette is the transition to the squat toilette, affectionately known as the 'hole in the ground' one must aim over. Pain points:

1) Aim

2) Wiping

3) Sanitation

4) Where to put the toilette paper.

None of this is easy.

Transitions between toilettes are hard for everyone. A friend once told me a story of a child used to the squat toilette, who was asked to use a traditional western toilette. When the friend walked into the bathroom after the child, he found foot prints on top of the bowl. The child had thought you were supposed to stand on top of the bowl in order to relieve yourself.

For a future post: confusions between bedays and other toilette experiences.