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City Culture – Pissing Men, India Gate & Elsewhere

Urination is prohibited.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

The two men were urinating against the monumental backdrop of India Gate. One of them, a photographer who refused to give his name, was defiant: “I take pictures of tourists. I had an emergency and the toilet is far from here and I cannot lose customers… so I’m doing it here.”

It was only a few days ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India drive from Rajpath, against the backdrop of India Gate. The New Delhi Municipal Council did its bit by plastering dozens of posters around the traffic circle, headlined “Papa!! Ho Ho, Shame, Shame! You are urinating in public!”

The next day, a British blogger called Christine, who runs the blog Delhi Diary, posted: “Yesterday, if you remember, the PM flagged off a huge clean up campaign. He launched it from Raj Path, the wide avenue that links India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President’s residence. Can’t get a more prestigious avenue if you tried. I run along Raj Path most mornings, and this morning was no exception. I suppose I expected pristine-ness, less than 24 hours after yesterday’s hoopla, and after all the photos in the morning papers of our civic worthies wielding brooms… Ah well… and what do I see but this. A cop on duty, peeing against the wall of South Block…”

The blogger even uploaded a photo of the policeman caught in the act.

The India Gate grounds actually have two, discreetly situated, public toilets but The Delhi Walla found one of them closed. I was told there was no water. The second toilet was operational, but only the ladies’ section had users. I discovered that a hedge was the preferred destination for golgappa vendors to relieve themselves.

When I accosted one of them and reminded him of the Prime Minister’s call for a clean India, he looked terrified. On gently pressing him further, he nervously mumbled, “Galti ho gayi (I erred).”

One of the saddest sights in the Capital is the scene outside poet Mirza Ghalib’s tomb in the historic Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. An elderly, homeless resident there virtually lives in a pool of urine. All day long, and at night too, men keep coming to urinate against the brick wall behind him. Sometimes, little boys play pissing contests. He does not even stir.

The mood is different on tree-lined Lodi Road. “Please don’t piss” — reads the message in Hindi on the wall. A man who runs a food stall there was agitated when he saw me taking a photograph, “Yes, so! I asked a friend to put up this message. What wrong have I done? Is it a crime to stop people from peeing here? Why are you taking the wall’s photo? Okay, arrest me.”

Barbarians at the gate

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11. A Delhiwalla in Paris

2 thoughts on “City Culture – Pissing Men, India Gate & Elsewhere

  1. A tragedy of the commons! One would think that a society obsessed with ritual/personal purity and pollution would brook no shoddiness in matters of public hygiene. In our nation, toilets are few and far between. One needs to be a certified expert in holding one’s breath to use most of them.

    1. That’s right. And garbage cans too. The few that exist are overturned by the police for fear of bombs. Where is one to throw garbage?

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