I have been bored and restless the past few days. And now when I am thinking about it, I realise that I have not seen a movie in a month, not shopped in close to two months, and not travelled in more than three months. Obviously I am bored and restless!
I don't have the time to explore and develop a liking for new things. I don't remember the last time I instantly started liking a new thing. None of the things that used to excite me seem to be doing so anymore. Really, none of them! I am oh-so-bored and restless!
So, while I restart my efforts to get a few people together to head out to a new place again, let me simultaneously write about the little, much overdue trip to the Toilet Museum in Delhi.
Last weekend, I was going through old posts here on Fuchsia when I remembered that the Museum is still on my to-do list. A switch to Facebook on the next tab had Arobindo Sinha updating his location back to Delhi. He is known for toilet humour, and I had been advised to take him along whenever I make this trip. A few comments later, we had a plan.
On Saturday afternoon, he and I met after about three odd years, and moved straight to the Museum. When I entered the place, the first thought was that the place is far smaller than I had imagined. It was funny to think that I contemplated on which shoes to wear. It should suffice to say that you can go there in stilettos too.
We started looking about, read some funny facts, shared a little laugh when one gentleman walked in and introduced himself to the only other two people in the Museum, an American couple. He was going to give them a guided tour. He asked us if we were interested in the tour. We agreed. We could not have imagined what the next 30 minutes had in store for us. I wish I could have recorded the tour. The 72-year-old Mr. Jha is seriously one of the most amusing people I have ever met! His gestures, his accent, the creepy flirtatiousness, and just the bloody way of being cracked us up. I mean, giving a tour of a toilet museum should be funny enough. Why do you have to do the action of 'doing business'! Anyway.
So he took us through the complete evolution - from the Indus Valley civilisation to the first WC to the old practices of western Europe to all the latest technological innovations - we covered everything. And the punctuating jokes made the tour perfect.
In appreciation of toilet humour and an embarrassing irony, I will tell you that I went to use the loo and realised a little too late that there was no water. The absence of toilet paper had anyway been noticed and ignored upon entering itself. So. It was a memorable trip in more ways than one.
Below are some pictures that I have borrowed from Google. The copyright is with their respective original owners.
 |
| The Museum! |
THIS is Mr. Jha. That table is also a toilet from some godforsaken time in history.
Apparently, the differences between England and France led to the making of toilets of this kind. The French made these book-shaped toilets and put names of popular English books on them. This one has Macbeth on it.
The image in blue highlights a little trick you can use when you cannot access a toilet. Maybe I should have used it too. It is about applying pressure on the hand in anticlockwise direction in the given shape to reduce the pressure and thus the urge to immediately relieve yourself.
 |
| I laughed uncontrollably! You HAVE to go through the text here. |
 |
| I think this one was from Austria. |
 |
| A solar powered toilet. You don't need water for this one. |
A king used to address his audience while sitting on this toilet. Obviously he had a troubled stomach. I will buy this the day my kingdom is in place.
