Of toilet doors, purple colored wrappers and napkins!

 

The architect, who constructed the building where my company is situated, will win no prizes. Not true actually… he sure will win-for the lousiest construction ever.

We all sit in ‘bays’-everyone does these days. Spaces that are given to you. Your space that you can decorate- portraits, perfumed candles, flowers and even a potted plant.

You sneeze and the whole wing resounds. Mobile tunes of varying frequencies and horrible tunes are forced upon you. Lunch is eaten at your desk. People open steel vessels packed with loving care from mother’s at home. Or wives’ at home- not many people out here are married though. Tupperware is trendy. You just eat…

The toilets take the cake. ‘Privacy’ was the last of concerns for our very own architect when he built the loos!

The first few days I joined here, I would walk with acute embarrassment to that one place. The people in the bays sitting near the loos would give me distracted looks… I would walk like a limp model on a Parisian ramp-as if the whole world looked on at me… and quite suddenly I would even forget to walk! I might be overdoing it… but this is what I felt…

There is but one common entrance to the ‘bathrooms’! You open that, and you either bang into someone who comes from inside, or you hurry inside. I’ve done both…and several times.

The main door opened after whatever casualty, and there comes a decision making step. To your right or to your left? No help is given. The first time, I walked back embarrassed-I didn’t want to open the wrong door and see things I’ve not seen so far!

I waited for sometime, till I saw a person of the same gender as I, and followed her. The one on the right was the correct answer.

There is hardly enough space for three people to stand, once you reach inside! Two toilets-one of which the door doesn’t lock!

A few weeks later, I wasn’t as conscious about it as before. Then started my other plight-the guy who sits closest to the loo began smiling at me. Each of my ‘visit’ to that place was subject to beams from him! I pretended to ignore him, but he would turn around and look at me… Then came his attempt at friendliness. But I…? I wasn’t kind. I was mad at him, for making my journey all the more difficult!

Ok-everyone goes to the toilet. Everyone. So-what’s all this about?

It’s my plight. My discomfort. And more…

‘Those days of the month’… how on earth are you supposed to carry a napkin to the toilet without anyone knowing about it? Every girl gets her periods. At least, every girl I know does!

With stomach cramps, nausea and a bad mood-I have to find a solution to take the purple colored wrapper-inside which is the napkin!! All this without anyone seeing me carrying it!!

Handbags are one thing I’ve not mastered the art of carrying yet-among many other things I must say! A small backpack carries all I want to- a few packets of tissues which I generously lend my friends to clean their bikes, a comb I’ve not once used, a hair band I carry to tie up my hair in the afternoons when it dries(the rest of the day its held in place by a contraption someone invented called the ‘butterfly clip’)…a book that I am currently reading, an ATM card of someone I love (it has a picture of his!), a few tickets to the near by places I traveled on the bus, bills of things I bought years before…. and my wallet.

Carrying my backpack to the toilet is not the wisest move I’ve made. I’ve done it once and I got knowing smiles from a few girls. ‘Knowing smiles’ coz I went over and barked ‘What?’. To which they smiled all the more and said, “Periods huh?’ How come I never know when someone else has it?

I’ve lived with my flat mate for almost 6 months. Every night before going to bed, she brushes her hair, puts on a layer of powder, her bindi and curls her eyelashes! I’d never noticed this all the 6 months-until my newest flat mate commented on it!

I just never notice things. Warning bells go off when any of my friends come up to me and ask, “So, what’s different on my face today?” man, I dread questions like that. I never notice eye color unless they are striking, I never notice if people wear lenses, I never notice if they have lettuce stuck on their teeth… I never notice anything!

Ok, where was I? Yeah- on the way to the toilet at my office…

‘Those days of the month’ have just become more wretched-I’d never have thought it was possible… but yes they have!

I finally found a solution-I never notice things even if it’s staring at my face… I had to find the solution myself.

I went yesterday and bought a few yards of cloth. Strict instructions to my tailor, “I need pockets …”