World Toilet Day: A tour of Delhi's Sulabh Museum and funny potty stories from around the world

Crappy Chronicles
A monument to commemorate your morning runs might sound like a tad overreaching to many. But the Sulabh Toilet Museum in Dwarka, Delhi, charts out the 4,500-year-old history of scat and documents the evolution of our most important bodily functions.Did you know that Europe's Black Plague of 1348 occurred because the gentry preferred to throw their waste out on the streets every morning? Or that a space toilet that NASA purchased from Russia is the world's costliest, at $19 million? Interestingly, this toilet also turns urine into drinking water. Scatological details like these, comics and even potty jokes adorn the museum's walls. Made by Sulabh International's founder Bindeshwar Pathak, a pioneer in sanitation awareness in the country, the museum has toilets sourced from over 50 countries. The huge variety includes tent toilets with biodegradable disposable packets, toilets that use dehumidifiers to get rid of the waste, portable toilets, chamber pots with elaborate floral designs and also one that burns faecal matter to ash. A very fascinating one is a two-storeyed toilet that was used during the 1920s in the US–its top storey was reserved for the management, while the one below was for the employees. Not surprisingly, the futuristic toilet displayed at the museum belongs to a Japanese toilet company (Toto); it allows you to flush, clean and dry just at the tip of a button. The crown in the jewel though is a toilet replica of King Louis XIV's throne, from where he is believed to have conducted court proceedings for better time management! The museum is full of trivia. A wow moment was discovering that while we complain about Indian villages not having adequate toilet facilities today, back in 2500 BC, during the Harappan civilisation, private toilets were not uncommon. In fact in their glorious era, Harappans came up with the world's first flush toilets or water closets. Another interesting story that will make you go WHAT! is about John Harington, courtier and godson of Queen Elizabeth I. He was banished for creating and gifting a flush toilet to the queen; he had built one for himself too. "That's how distasteful people considered the subject," exclaims the museum's curator, Bageshwar Jha. Later realising the great service he had done to society with his creation, he was called back and knighted. Some books of fiction also say that the term 'John', which is used for toilets is due to John Harrington.Founder Bindeshwar Pathak, who has built over 50,000 toilets till date says, "A visit to Madame Tussauds led to the idea. I mistook a man standing next to me for a wax doll and poked him. He was shocked and later we laughed about it. The statues fascinated me so much that I wanted to build a museum too; but mine had to be on toilets. On returning I set about writing proposals; for the 101 letters I wrote, I got 61 replies. The only request from Indian authorities was that I don't play the national anthem here.Isn't it a bit of an irony that the country with the largest number of people defecating in the open has a toilet museum with 355 artefacts from 50 countries? Pathak says there's more to come. He plans to build similar museums in all 690 districts of the country. The Ranchi district administration has already given him the thumbs up to build it. Pathak believes, "There must be a toilet museum everywhere, so that people know the importance of safe sanitation."

Fun Facts
Toilets were places for discussion in Goa
In a 450-year-old Indo-Portugese house in Lotoulim, South Goa, the men's toilet room has three commodes. It's owner Maendra Alvares says that in the olden days, the men of the house didn't have any qualms in going to the loo together. In fact they held important discussions there and believed that some of their best ideas came while on the pot. He informs that this is seen in several other Goan houses and in some other parts of India too.

Paris has public toilets for dogs... since 10 years!
Elephants get potty training in Thailand
To prevent the large number of elephants at Chiang Mai, Thailand, from dirtying roads with poop, they are being potty trained since 2003.
Cafe in Victorian toilet, UKAttendant, a cafe in London functions out of a Victorian toilet room. Even though it is not used for its original purpose, the hand dryer, flushes and urinals are still intact. In fact, a wooden plank has been attached to the standing urinals and is used as the table.

—Inputs for Fun Facts from Bageshwar Jha, Yashraj Jain and Maendra Alvares, as told to Pooja Bhula