When I was last in India, around new years, I took a lot of photos of signs (Posts: 1, 2, 3) Of all the ones I saw, however, these two were my favorites. I spotted them at a Reliance truck stop / Dhaba on a toll road in Gujarat, late at night.
The first sign clearly indicates a ladies room, but in a very desi way. This is what I’d always hoped for from modern India; not a straight forward cloning of the west, but instead a bollystyle mashup, a “blend of eastern and western” tackyness. Yes, I know that not all Indian women wear saris, I’m Punjabi. But it’s still more apposite than a woman in a dress, and for Gujarat, it’s dead on many Gujarati women wear saris, albeit in the local style.
The second one I love because it takes the mickey out of the western name for the facilities, the “bathroom”. You know, if you’re doing #2 in a tub, I really don’t want to know about it. Toilets are for p*ssing and sh*tting in, bathrooms are for bathing in. And better still, this icon doesn’t show a western style shower (which many truck drivers may never have used) but instead an Indian style bath (or a very confused man using a lota wrongly 
). It’s a shame these signs aren’t available for import here …
Oh yes, in case you were curious, the men’s room was spotless (unlike this: 1, 2) My nostalgia for traditional dhabas only goes so far …
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p> Update: Binoy cleaned the images up! Here they are [jpg, eps]:
Piffle and ack-thoo
for i shall not deign to speak with thee
unless you learn that
the ellipsis are only a one, a two and a three.
that being said
i enjoyed your scribble
so i hope you stick around
we’ll drink. make merry and even enjoy a nibble.
Am i coming on too strong?
caught up in my glee
but then again, I am
the big ass hairy_D to your abcee.
I just gotta ask though – why is the woman wearing no blouse? Either she’s wearing full sleeves or going tribal style…
that’s the ishtyle, yaar.
I doubt brown_ladka would have asked that 😉
in bombay, when they started these things over a decade ago, they had them all over town. they also had these really fancy signs saying ‘sulabh shauchalay’ which were lit up and all. they were, in fact, so fancy that i even convinced someone that it was a restaurant, and a really good one. the results were quite amusing, to say the least. he almost ended up taking a date there…!
I loved the washlet. Japanese houses don’t do central heat, that hot water is a nice way to get going. They also offer the warmlet for cold seats.
Dutch toilets are like German toilets. They have a #1 flush & a #2 (real) flush.
To the big ass Hairy_D
all rhyme no reason you’re full of shi*
now listen what he got to say the big man AbC
no drink no nibble you keep on with yo dribble
for a dope like you was not meant my scribble
yo punk ass wont get my drift yo brains was where big G was a thrift
but big Abc .. not stuck up as you the man will give you yo due
even tho you got the brain of a moo all i can say is … peace to you