amalgam

"Indians defecate everywhere", commented Naipaul in his "Area of Darkness", the first book in the trilogy on India. As an outsider, this is how he viewed Indians on his first visit to India. Off course, many of us thought it to be a statement made due to ignorance of what Indianness is and we openly romanticize the idea of a 'maidan' visit early in the morning. Sanitation is a western concept and therefore we don't really think very highly of it. We do not want our feces to go to waste and would rather use it to fertilize our agricultural land. We take pride in such organic way of life. With the scarcity of space in urban environments we have been forced to defecate in our own homes. A revolting idea. We do that with a lot of shame but we do makeup by urinating in open public spaces. It satisfies our urge to be and behave Indian. The Indian government being Indian supports this idea of Indianness by not providing basic sanitary amenities and util