The Indian WC

“Water closet” is shortened to WC. WC is adopted as the referral to the toilet where one can defecate. The WC bifurcates into an English and Indian style. Further on an English WC appears with widened flanges which are footholds of ceramic on the bowl making it an dual, English-Indian  WC. 

The twisted humour of this nomenclature becomes poignant when you consider that this developed and is normal parlance across the Indian subcontinent where the majority would not be using English to refer to their act of defecation, most of the places do not have water in the WC (case in point being the railways Indian WC on trains) and I can vouch most would not think that WC is an abbreviation.

The contortions about referring to ablutions is socio-cultural to us ? Well, well - our literature (indigenous, old literature), our traditional medicine, our father of the nation - all have extensively discussed the faeces we create, what to do with it and what it implies. Its taken as more of a message of your body, sent out, for you to visualise and understand whats going on within the confines of your skin framework. So why is the embarrassment of poop so evident today ? Centuries of slavery induced an inferiority that was inherently Indian and not accepted by the colonisers. The referral of faeces in al its obliquity, the discarding without inspection of the poop, the use of paper and not water and to channelise it via large ducts to a central facility - to process - is all a European construct. From Harrapan ages onwards, the subcontinent - channelised clean water via ducts never poop. Faeces was disposed locally in designated tanks, after a mandatory - cursory visualisation as it was discharged on a dry surface and consequently cleaned off with water. The literature has ample references to connect stool characteristics and physical health, before diseases become evident. The stigma of an Indian traditionalism and desire to be with the times, got in the change to avoid faeces, but before the infrastructure was ready. Resultantly 70 years later our PM stands at the ramparts of Red Fort and vows to end open defecation, to a country that houses the most ancient civilisation. The change to WC is becoming complete. 

As any narrative goes, there developed an Indian WC - it retained the essentials of the thought but used piped disposal. To validate thousands of years of hand me down knowledge - that has evolved with experience and tested by time - we researched on the Indian WC and found that the posture induces ease of faecal passage and diminishes strain used. Voila - now to keep a stool below the English WC is the new “hot” and we can now import from US - the squatty-potty. It makes your posture as on a Indian WC while you sit on your English WC. With a fancy name, that can induce a laugh - squatty potty, is being adopted by the every one high on the social ladder. 

The irony does not stop to amaze, the aspect of evaluation of your poop visually before it is washed away, which is possible on the Indian WC is now being done by a “artifical intelligence taught gadget with deep machine learning, attached to the WC - and sends reports via wi-fi to your app on the phone”. Sounds so cool. It lists the colour and other aspects and makes a summary and at times issues you warnings as well. 

At the airport, any where in the world - we would either layer the bowl with toilet paper or place the paper cur out carefully without touching the ceramic, before parking our precious backside on the bowl. At the Delhi airport, I was pleasantly surprised to find an Indian WC which obliviated this need and no one was cueing in front of this cubicle. Easier access and easier out. 

The Indian WC is banished to the corners of socio-economic constructs while we are finding ways to incorporate the benefits of it, as we discover them now - into our English WC. Eons of tradition, standing upto vigorous research of today and yet not accepted in the mainstream. The story of the faeces makes my gut wrench on the our inferiority complexes.