PIDDLERS ON THE STREET
When you see
someone purposefully striding up to a garbage dump, rubble, construction site,
behind a tree or facing a wall, arms akimbo, and standing at ease, he is a
Bangalorean on a mission - “on your mark, get set, pee”. Sir Pee is choosy
about the venue for relief, emergency or otherwise !
Indian citizens take their constitutional
Right to Freedom very seriously. They love to spit, honk, litter, break queues,
jump traffic signals, create public nuisance, put up loudspeakers and set up shamianas
in the middle of the road, at will. Bangalore’s walls are a kaleidoscope of
local politicians and their henchmen or posters of movie stars. There are
occasional boards that read, “Illi Mootra Visarjana Nishedha” or “Do not
urine/urinate here”, or more politely “Please do not pass urine here” or “Do
not pass piss please”. One was innovative and read, “Only dogs pee on walls,
not men". These boards ,
notwithstanding, Mootra visarjana in India’s Silicon city is a frequently
pursued pastime, not just by the toilet-deprived citizens, but sometimes even
by the city’s seemingly literate or educated class either because they lack
civic sense and shame or both or simply don’t care. One always wondered why
this is a scourge rampant in Bangalore as compared to other Indian cities. Is
it Bangalore’s much-envied salubrious climate that drives the “pee-ple” to
dispense nature’s liquid waste out in the open, under the skies, or is it the
lack of public toilets? Or is it our patriarchal society that allows men or
boys to be told that it is alright for them to pee on the streets. After all,
they are the superior sex!
A local radio channel was imaginative enough to embarrass Sir Pee by
getting someone to whistle or play the drum if he was caught thus!
From a pensioner’s paradise to a
pensioner’s nightmare and a garden city to a Silicon city to a garbage city,
Bangalore has indeed come a long way. The planners perhaps did not envisage
that the city would swell to a population of 85 lakhs in 2013 or that it would
require improved basic amenities like water and sanitation. Karnataka has the
dubious distinction of providing the least number of public toilets for its
citizens.
Alas, Bangalore is now a city bogged down by its own growth and success story. It has some of the snazziest
buildings, swankiest cars and ritziest malls, but sadly, it has a measly 503
public toilets of which only 200 are in usable condition. A recent survey
indicated that Bangalore would need atleast 5000 public toilets.
It is not common to find your city being
used as a verb, and I was proud of the neologism, “Bangalored”, coined in America when one’s
job was outsourced or moved to India, or specifically, Bangalore. Trudging
along the battered pavements or crossing a crater ridden road in large parts of
Bangalore is a test of one’s athletic skills and tolerance to stench!
Bangalored, indeed ! The citizens need to wake up and rise as one man to curb
this abhorrent, shameful menace. With elections round the corner, will the aspiring politicians promise us a pee-free environment in their manifesto ?
Latha Raghuram.