World Toilet Day - A big squat Marathon'

My usual morning routine starts up at 5 am in the morning and ends after a
Tom and Jerry ' race to finish few deadly household chores.. at 8am, my steaming hot Kappi and reading thro the news, and gupshups in News paper really makes my day. Today, my large eyes popped at an advertisement in 'The Metro Plus' Domex sponsoring the 'World's toilet day' which is today the 19th November.

Immediate reaction was to call couple of my close friends and wished them. Well this was exactly at 8.30 in the morning, also sent sms wishes to many. I was sure most of them would be in their wash room/toilet at this hour getting ready to work.

Thanks to WHO to have found a day for this special action, a day to create an awareness on hygiene and sanitation. This is indeed an issue which is as serious as Terrorism and corruption prevailing in our country today.

A quick search gave me a insight about this issue it is proven that 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year.Because even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways.

There has been various issued raised on this in many local and neighbourhood papers, it also reminds that one of the issues of Mylapore Times carried a picture of a man using the temple corner to urinate and just after a week the entire corner turned to a nice garden.. Lots of controversies, debates on sanitation and hygiene, but it is an effort by itself which has to come within all of us.

Chennai is now going strong with Marathon and walks on beach to campaign various social causes, sponsors flooding their funds, Media going all out for coverage. Why not a marathon to create awareness in Sanitation and Hygiene.

Just a thought ran through, wish I had lot of support and funds, would definitely hold a 'Big Squat' Marathon. A thought process, if all of us could join hands on the Marina beach , the most wanted venue for walks and marathon today, squat for 5 minutes all together holding tissue papers with slogans printed on.

This could be definitely a good exercise though, but also unity in common posture to create awareness. Definitely my sponsor would be Manufacturers of Toilet cleaning detergents, Tissue papers, Sanitary ware stockists. Every 'Squat er' participant need to register with a fee of Rs. 50 each... (hot soup is served after the event to mobilise the intestine)

I'm sure with my experience in Fund raising and Pr, I would be able to collect a large sum, which is ultimately donated to the government to install clean toilets in public places, conduct forums and educated people on personal sanitation and hygiene.

Not a bad idea though, this was really passed on to couple of my close friends who promised to squat with me on this deal... Well there are also some interesting criteria to participate in this special event.

A BIG NO to Elders above 60 Plus, and children below 5 yrs.
Special guests and celebrites would be provided special ramp to squat.
'Hum Honge Kamyab' song would be played loud to cheer up the participants.
Each participant would carry a memento of a WC sponsored by House of Parry Ware' as token of participation.

This is a issue which is common to all irrespective of caste, creed, sex, or status, and one which brings all of us together universally, is indeed a special occasion today, to talk about this.

Happy Toilet day... I need to wind up, all set to clean up my toilet this day.