November 21, 2005

Thinking out of the pot

My Monday piece for MidDay, here.

I worked on it till very late one night, and perhaps that explains why, on reading it in print today, I'm mildly dissatisfied with the way it turned out. Apologies, MidDay. Comments welcome anyway.

***

On another, but tangentially related note ... We met friends yesterday who had attended the recent SL-India one-day match in Pune. They told us that the Nehru Stadium doesn't have a single toilet for women! I'm astounded by this.

Apparently the women who attended were told to exit the stadium and "maybe" they would find a public toilet on a nearby street. But this would mean problems with returning to watch the match, ticket-wise. Other women were directed to a space behind a large water-tanker. Eventually our friend and several other women went to the pavilion and demanded to use a men's toilet, which was then cleared of men.

What's the thinking here? That women don't attend cricket matches? That women don't have bodily functions? That women can hold it in indefinitely? That women ... what?

In any case, I hope Ajit Pawar is taking note, and will bar Maharashtra Cricket Association officials from running for election.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you read asterix and the olympic games? women were barred from entering the sacred olympic stadium. and one goes out fuming, 'some day women will bot only enter as spectators but will participate too'. remembered that when I read this :)
(comment moderation all that, ahem)

Anonymous said...

I have not been following the cricket games for some time. So it was after some time I saw the India/SL ODI at Baroda. I heard that some Cricket entity ( cannot recall which one) awarded more thanRs50 lakhs ( or some such figure)to the players.
Says a lot where there is so much moneypoured into the game, but we lack basic facilities