There is no point in getting infuriated or defensive about this. The general lack of cleanliness and hygiene hits the eye wherever one goes in India — hotels, hospitals, households, work places, railway trains, airplanes and, yes, temples. Indians think nothing of spitting whenever they like and wherever they choose, and living in surroundings which they themselves make unliveable by their dirty habits.
The Indian Public Health Association has regularly been reporting the “scary situation” in Indian hotels, restaurants and eateries. The last, in particular, do not follow hygienic practices, use unclean containers, utensils and cups and plates and are often located near open drains or garbage bins.
Most mid-day meal kitchens in schools are no better.
DIRTIEST CLOTHES
Recently, Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh courted a controversy with his remark that India needed more toilets than temples. Open defecation has become so rooted in India that even when toilet facilities are provided, the spaces round temple complexes, temple tanks, beaches, parks, pavements, and indeed, any open area are covered with faecal matter.
Some years ago, while staying at the Guest House of an undertaking, I watched with disbelief the wife of a fellow-guest occupying another room letting her child out into the compound to do its business. When I asked her why she was doing it when there was a good attached bath-room, she blandly said that the child was not comfortable with any other mode of evacuation. True story!