A bucket toilet and shower
The sounds which wake you up in India are far different than the ones in the typical American city. Roosters, which don’t crow three times at dawn’s light and call it a day, start about an hour before and can crow every few minutes for an hour or until their throat sounds scratchy. Irritated sounding crows start their conversations at light but other birds chirping and trilling has already begun. At least one neighbor will start sweeping their home and its entrance area of the night’s dust and litter. As the light gets stronger, conversations, children’s excited cries, and the engine sounds and horn beeps of motorcycles and rickshaws overlay the birds’ sounds.
As I lay in bed, I listen to the loud clearing of the throat, spitting, and nose snorts ringing around me as Indians begin their toilette. I hear the splashing of bucket water but I don’t hear the flushing of toilets as many here don’t have flushable toilets. I don’t hear the soft electronic whir of razors and toothbrushes in a country where power is often erratic and comparatively expensive. If I am staying near a river, most of my neighbors will go there to wash themselves, shave, and brush their teeth.
Depending on the quality of the place I am staying, I have to bucket flush my western or Asian (the ceramic key hole look with the place for the feet) toilet, turn the water on to flush it, or just flush it. The quality of the place and its location in India will also determine whether I get a hot shower, cold shower, or even a shower at all. The ever present bucket of water and a big cup are the alternatives. I’ve already remembered that I should fill the bucket of water at night just in case there is no water the next day when the power is out at night. No power, no pump to fill the water tank at each guest house.
In the smaller cities and the smaller villages, the noise volume doesn’t really pick up until more than an hour after dawn – so about 7 am. Full throated life and sounds rev up around 9 and keep going until dark around 6:30. By 9, the sounds of people, animals, rickshaws and motorcycles start to diminish rapidly as people end their days in the quietness of their homes. Until those over anxious roosters begin their work at 4:30, the stillness of the deep night lays heavily in India. Darn roosters!
By writing every day, you will come home with enough fodder for a book on your travels. I remember China never being very quiet, even late at night. At least after 9, you can have some peace. Using bucket showers you really learn to be efficient with water!