Page 62 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

30 Glimpses of Traditional Indian Life

and urine attracting millions of maggots and flies. Even
water-flushed toilets, which are the norm in towns, are at
floor level for squatting on, which posture is natural and
therefore more effective for defecating than are Western
commodes.

After evacuating, bathing is compulsory. Villagers go
either to a tube well or open well, draw a bucket of water,
and throw it over themselves with a lota; or bathe in a river
or pond. By Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement, in the early mornings of
winter days, water taken from a tube well or open well is as
warm as if heated. Yet on torrid summer days, water from
the same wells is cool, this effect being more pronounced
in deeper wells. When after an arduous journey we would
arrive at a village during the midday heat, someone would
vigorously pump a tube well and fill bucket after bucket
with cool water, which we would throw over our heads.
On a hot summer’s day there’s nothing as invigorating
and refreshing.

Man-made ponds (pukurs) are important amenities in
Bengal; almost all villages have at least one, and some
have several. Many relatively affluent families have their
own. Pukurs are generally square or oblong. They are used
for bathing and for washing clothes and cooking utensils.
Some are reserved exclusively for drinking water. At the
edge of pukurs are bathing ghats with steps of mud, or
preferably stone or brick. The best pukurs are large and
deep and therefore do not dry up during summer. They
also remain relatively clean even if many people bathe