A few days ago, late afternoon, at around 4'o clock, I was walking down my street with a friend of mine and he noticed a man pull down his pants and pee right on the main alley in full visibility, My friend stopped dead in his tracks and said "This man is an animal he can't hold on until he gets home, In the US this is inadmissible... I laughed and kept my thoughts to myself...
I am born here in India and for me a scene like that greets me at least thrice a day... He is not born here nor did he live here long enough, aloud I said "NO COMMENTS..." at the same time I was reminded of an incident that shocked me silly.,
I was taking a ride back with a friend of mine working then with GE, he lived for a while in the US ( LOL) , consuming beer early that evening was not easy on his belly and the bumpy roads weren't of much help neither... HE said Dude I have to absolutely take a leak... I looked around to see where he could LEAK, He notices my dilemma and says But I can just turn to the wall and paint it... Thought that was very Funny and laughed but Didn't want to be part of that Indian slapstick comedy scene... Gritt my teeth and held on to the bike and rode back all the way with the thought of the guy not washing his hands after Peeing... Eeaaawww !!! I kept saying Ayyo! in head, and when I got off that evening I was praying to god that he shouldn't offer to shake my hand , Then I have to invite him inside for an acid wash and then maybe shake his hand that had pee drops for 20 minutes long...
I had come back to present where My American friend was telling me some of his Childhood P games :p I was laughing and in exchange I told him what I saw, when I was coming back from the pool... right opposite Secunderabad club... (those of you who know Secunderabad, You'll Know what kind of an area that is, if you don't then its one of those real Richie's locality...) I was in an auto and I saw a car parked and the door of the car open from a certain angle I could see a child's legs and ray of pee... ( LOL I thought the only difference between the have's and have nots is that one can afford cover and the others can't!!!)
In that flow an other P story resurfaced, Dr VENKAT, he is a 85 years young farmer, most part of his life he worked to teach farmers the importance of Organic farming... One Sunday Ashwin, Deva, Brenda, Marcus, Kiki and me went over to his place... amidst coffee and cigarettes each revealed their inner passions and Surprisingly enough LAND ANIMALS PLANTS WATER and HUMANS were the centre of the discussion, Doc Kept calling man Animal and KIKI (the German lady) was getting edgy... well so the real incident that actually flummoxed me was Brenda Announcing "I have to PEE and not in the loo And Doc says sure wherever you want... I really thought that was a JOKE BUT NO They were both not kidding, Brenda went straight in to the land adjacent to the house, and comes back with a glee to thank Dr. venkat for letting her Contribute, Surprisingly no one were shocked that day... and the conversation revolved uniquely on P. Doc explained about the needs of an agricultural LAND and how civilisation is depriving it of its rightful paybacks...
This may sound radical and even disgusting to some of you there... In Japan There are people who are fed and paid to Umm... Unload in winters, and in summers the household takes turns to nourish the land,(A friend of mine told me about it and I was Not sicked out)
In Ladakh there are open lands and a tiny enclosure where you do your job, cover the stuff with mud... So it composts and can be used for farming purposes... as the land needs a composition of ammonia and live minerals that can mix with the earth, easy and quick (That Human Urine/feces consists) In a certain quantity ,
Human beings are the one's who don't recycle... says Green peace Anarchists , where do the sea creatures defecate and pee ?? and Ocean's are the cleanest places ( until human interference)
India is seeing the heights of urbanising only from past 20 years ago... and majority of India is still rural, for them the concept of storing wastage in a place with out recycling it is weird... I was once told by my maid that even really tasty food when stored for long time can stink up the place, I think she is right.
Urbanisation is a threat to the land...
I am not disgusted anymore ... At least unknowingly man is doing some good to the land... and Wondered if I can ever convince my friend and many people out there that its alright to pee outside... Why is it so difficult for us to see someone pee specially when its going in to the land to nourish it ?? Moreover in the most developed countries nudity is not a Taboo but providing the land of its rightful ,minerals is.
4 comments:
A meandering but interesting bunch of ideas around a decidedly touchy issue :) But I think the gist of what you said is so true - human waste is really seen as just that in so many pre-industrialized cultures: waste! Its not something inherently vomit inducing or 'nasty' - just something natural which has to be dealt with in a rational way. I was telling my German flatmate just yesterday about how yoga considers bodily waste as simply 'ash' - something left behind when matter is burned completely. I think thats a great metaphor because bodily metabolism is essentially a thermal process. Sweat, snot, urine, feces, dandruff are all essentially bodily ash and understanding goes much further than disgust with respect to these things and their uses.
If you go to see, fecal matter of Indians was related to social hierarchy, almost non-existent in present society. Not too long ago, higher castes didn't even clean up after themselves, the untouchables or Harijans did. According to 'Untouchable' by Mulk Raj Anand, the saviors of this class(not even a class until Mahatma Gandhi called them 'Harijans, They do not fit in the 4 classes of society:Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra) is really the WC and the flush!:) Seems to me Indians have a lot of shit to be ashamed of!
I can totally understand P-ing and pooping in the wilderness, there is the earth to absorb it in to transform it into something useful... but what about the concrete on our foot paths and the tar on our roads, they are not soaking the P, not transforming it, just preserving it as waste and spreading its stench into our already questionable city air... Modernisation really doesn't agree with us Indians!
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