Mouth - The Open Toilet

One of the Union Ministers of India, Mr. Jairam Ramesh recently kicked up a row by stating that there are more temples than toilets in India. He said to CNN IBN, "We are the world's capital for open defecation." According to him, "The second dimension of the sanitation problems in India is the Railway, which is really the largest open toilet in the world."

I beg to differ! Something tells me that the biggest open toilets are the corporate world, where millions of 'white collar executives' are "sh***ng bricks" every day and swearing with "Sh**" by the minute. The Indian railways' 11 million daily passengers are no match for this team. Railways have at least an 'assigned place' in the compartments for defecation. In the corporate world there are no such places or time limitations. Any time, anywhere and in front of anybody - here there is no discrimination towards females too! When the bus is missed in the morning, it gets a "Sh**" (did I miss the reaction when the morning alarm didn't ring?!). Then it goes on and on throughout the day like having perennial dysentery! It will stink if we go further and mind the 'private parts of human anatomy' bared in public and countless 'f***s' that are busted out while discussing business 'targets and strategies' - we will beat those who sit near Mumbai railway tracks with even Palmolive dinner tins, black and blue even 'dinner tables' are not spared where children are present!

Will it take a 'Jairam' to come and throw some light on us? In fact, it will be fun to do a self-audit on how many hours one could manage without using "Sh**" (and the rest of the 'waste') in one's own heart. After all, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks", Maybe we should also have a 'clean mouth ambassador' too to run this crusade in our offices. Considering Ms. Vidya Balan, the popular actress, being the brand ambassador for the 'clean toilet movement' in India, any votes for someone in your office to champion the humble 'clean mouth' campaign?!

It's not that some are better than others! The author, for one, learned this lesson in a hard way when pulled up by a teacher at 8^{th} standard for using the words 'outside dictionary' and could have got suspended from the school had it not been for the unbelievable interference of a good-hearted friend! Well, that's a story for another day!