It is only befitting that I should enter this blog post today, the 8th of March. Sisters, I have stormed the last male bastion! Indeed, I have crossed the threshold of the gents toilet. It happened entirely by accident. Like Newton sitting under the apple tree, like whats-his-name putting the whatchamacallit in a dish and forgetting all about it and ending up discovering penicillin. Nothing premeditated about it. Just destiny - pure, wonderful and path breaking.
I was at Delhi airport, awaiting departure call. A colleague was on the phone and I was engrossed in a serious discussion. Soon my flight was announced. Hurriedly, I rang off and made towards the toilet as was my usual practice before boarding a flight. Absently, I noted the sign saying 'Toilets -->' There were two doors with indications above them. The door on the right noted ' Gents'. So I turned towards the door on the left and walked briskly in.
There were three people inside. A sardar leaning over the wash basin, a long haired man combing his hair out and another who by this time had blurred in my vision. Registering this sight, I uttered a horrified gasp - matched only by three similar gasps from the three male occupants of the lavatory. Without further ado, I turned on my heel and marched out, taking time to see that the sign above the door on the left also said 'Gents toilet'.
I finally located what I was looking for after carefully double checking that it was indeed the ladies toilet. A few minutes later, as I was heading back towards the gate, I pondered over the incident. I wondered if there was a diaspora of women who have the unique distinction of having seen the interior of a gents toilet? How could I reach out to them?
That brings me back full circle - a blog post on Women's Day, celebrating the storming of this last male bastion!
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Thanks to my namesake: Deepa
OH MY GOSH!!! Looks like its time for us to have tight security at the toilet entrances too!! I can very well understand how you'd've felt on having that glimpse cuz you're not the only one. I've stormed into the ladies toilet not once but twice during my school days. Two disaster filled episodes! Phew! But cuz of my good luck, it was empty both the times..
Yea. It happens to the best of us. :)
Dear me....I could imagine your face changing shades...
While I was in Barmer,about a decade ago, the nature calls were to be the most exciting ones, since, we used to group up and go far away in the sand dunes, and the code word used was : "Pakistan Ja ke Aate Hain...". The scanty Acacia and short shrubs barely offered the much needed privacy in the long stretches of the golden dunes. Being urban bred this experience was ...Oh! Wow...'for me, and provided a platform to explore the hitherto unexplored. But I have seen women who wait till the dark cover of the dusk engulfed the Thar to attend to their most important ritual of the day..A bit of probing lead to stifled smiles....you can see only a eye behing the Baylo(the dupatta covering their heads and faces)...It seems that due to generations of socialisation and internalisation, their bodies are also quite programmed to respond to the status quo...
Your blog brought back those memories when I was ushered in to the real world of women with grit...
A day after the International Women's day...I take time out of my set schedule to salute all those women facing the unreleting social norms with smiles on their faces...
Why on earth did you STORM into the ladies toilet?!!
@Deepa.. well! What a qn! Y do you storm in to the toilet? it was after P.T hr. unfortunately (unusually too) i drank lots of water.. also i had to hurry to the class.. Also i usually go in and out as quick as possible to avoid inhaling too much of uric acid..
Hope the reasons are enough.. :)
well i have an incident where i went to ladies toilet...when i open the door, i see a man in a suit answering his nature call without even bothering to lock the door...and yes after i recovered from the shock, i did double check it if i made a mistake...no, i was in a ladies toliet, it was he who had barged into a forbidden place! And to add to it while i was standing outside trying to compose myself, the guy walks out with a smile and says " im sorry that i used ladies toilet, but u see it was an urgent need and gents toilet was occupied". Man, atleast u shld have locked the door!!! And this happened not in any small town, but in a very well know 5-star hotel at Mumbai!!!
I guess this is one character to ad to the profile of "Metrosexual male"...OPEN (in literal sense too) to use any toilets!!!