Why don't we have nice loos in India?

I hate to begin this blog with a reflection on the problem that faces a lot of urban India, but while most of the population considers this issue unimportant, I consider going to the loo a basic human need.

I was at the Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Academy last night doing publicity for another lah di dah 'P3P Art event'. While i watched perfectly coiffuered and manicured ladies rubbing shoulders with Indian artists and some shady Punju businessmen watching their hard earned mega bucks go up in a brilliant hue of colours, a very important question gripped me.

Where are all the toilets?

There were two toilets at the Bhavan, both so filthy that my one little nervous exploration into it resulted in immediately scurrying out. Watching the beautiful people around me, I wondered if they ever felt the need to go to the loo, or they would spend the next hour or so, chatting, drinking, nibbling and networking, but would no one ever feel the need to go.

Considering that its not the first or only time I have asked myelf this question, I can only pause to wonder.

Are we Indians as a race, unhygeinic?

Is it too much to ask for clean toilets in a country where the Financial Times still wants to comment on upraised bottoms on countless railway tracks across the country?

Do startlingly premium events only concentrate on the glittering chatterati? And do they not have bodily needs?

Or are we really half-human-half sub species with fewer bodily needs than other people?

In the meantime, I scout around in 5 star hotel lobbies, make quick entrances and exits in posh restaurants or grit my teeth and run home.

Sanitarily challenged,

Sonali Sokhal