Washing your bum. And the colonial mindset.

There’s been this European, David Vujanic, in the news nowadays, someone who discovered the hygiene faucet (or the ‘bum shower’ as he calls it). Reading that reminded me of my days in Dubai when I saw so many of these goras shocked (and pleasantly so) by this discovery that I remember one of them exclaiming, ”I am never going to mock an Indian or Arab for claiming an ancient civilisation without inventing the fork. I am a humbled man knowing what savages we are in Europe still.”

By the way, the sad part of this is that while every single toilet in the GCC countries has this facility, I was disappointed that almost none of our 5-star hotels in India think it necessary to include this. Is it because they think no one who comes to stay there uses one? I remember asking this at one of the leading luxury hotels in Mumbai when they had recently renovated and re-opened back in the early 2000s. There was no answer except something along the lines of, “We adhere to international standards, blah, blah, blah.” What international standards say you must wipe your ass with paper and not wash it with water? It’s just the colonial mindset and slave mentality. Nothing else.

P.S.: I bet now, after this, you’ll suddenly find these everywhere. I bet they’ll have a pat explanation about ‘market demand’ too. We all know the truth, though: They needed a gora to tell them this is useful. Sigh!