Tanvir Ahmed
We love travelling, whenever we save some money and holiday – we just fly! One thing we must do, while visiting a city is to visit the museum. Some people might find this really boring during a holiday. For us this is to understand the history, culture and learn something. In the process, we have visited world’s oldest & popular museums including Capitoline in Rome, British museum in London, Musei Vaticani in Vatican or the Louvre Museum in Paris. There are many more names in the list, but the one I found really interesting is a unique museum on toilet!The Sulabh Museum of Toilets is in Delhi, run by the Sulabh International, a NGO. This museum is dedicated to the global history of sanitation and toilets. In 2014, times magazine published a list of 10 weirdest museums in the world and this was ranked as number 3. It was established in 1992 by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, a social activist, founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement. If someone wanted to learn about the entire evolution of toilets throughout human history, then they have to visit this museum. This trace the history of the toilet for the past 4,500 years. From simple chamber pots to elaborate decorated Victorian toilet seats, you’ll see it all. There’s even a toilet disguised as a bookcase. The museum has exhibits from 50 countries across the world, arranged sequentially in three sections of “Ancient, Medieval and Modern”, according to the period of the sanitation artifacts collected from 3000 BC till the end of the 20th century. The museum’s exhibits bring out the development of the toilet related technology of the entire gamut of human history, social habits, etiquettes specific to existing sanitary situation and the legal framework in different periods. The items on display not only include privies, chamber pots, decorated Victorian toilet seats, toilet furniture, bidets and water closets in vogue since from 1145 AD to-date. Display boards have poetry related to toilet and its use!
Some of the interesting and amusing objects and information charts on display are: a reproduction of a commode in the form of treasure chest of the British medieval period; a reproduction of the supposed toilet of King Louis XIV which is reported to have been used by the king to defecate while holding court; a toilet camouflaged in the form of a bookcase; information on the technology transfer from Russia to NASA to convert urine into potable water, a deal of $19 million; display boards with comics, jokes and cartoons related to humour on toilets; toilet pots made of gold and silver used by the Roman emperors; information about flush pot designed in 1596 by Sir John Harington during Queen Elizabeth I’s regime; the sewerage system that existed during the Harappan Civilization; and historical information from the Lothal archeological site on the development of toilets during the Indus Valley Civilization. This might sound hilarious to visit a toilet museum while visiting Delhi, still it’s an experience and something different to do. I would also like to share this link from where someone can find the history of world toilets- http://www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org/history-of-toilets/
About the writer:
Tanvir Ahmed is an experienced marketer & strategist, based in the UK. He is the founder of Academy for Professional Qualification, chief consultant of ALIANAz Ltd. and leading his own breakthrough innovation project jointly with UK central research lab.
A Photographer who loves to travel (covered 30+ countries in 4 continents), has a passion for innovation and (perhaps inevitably) a Bangladeshi cricket fanatic!