Imagine taking a road trip. You've got the wind in your hair, the beautiful scenery whizzing past you, the perfect road trip music. But there is one thing you don't have. A toilet! So you resist the urge to gulp down bottles of water, in fear of having to take a trip to a loo that might be dirty, stinky and without water. This is just one scenario. We've all needed to control our bladders at some point and in some cases, we've even told children to 'hold it' as well.
While we, as adults, may show self-restraint, Rahi, the protagonist of Neha Singh's book I Need to Pee doesn't hold back on drinking fluids or exercising her right to pee anywhere, whether she is on a train with deplorable toilets or on a bus, where she has to pee outside, much to her mother's dismay. But like many good ideas, did Neha also stumble upon hers while in the loo? Quite the opposite actually. She drew from her own "harrowing experience of finding good and safe public toilets," while commuting by bus from Bhopal to Mumbai.
Cleverly illustrated by Bengaluru-based illustrators Meenal Singh and Erik Egerup, the book doesn't shy away from showing dirty urinals, but in an aesthetic way that makes us stare in wonder and not cringe in disgust. And this is because, as Neha puts it, "the truth always makes for compelling illustrations." And certainly, they didn't hold back from depicting reality. For example, "the picture of Rahi peeing and staring down the hole of an Indian-style toilet in a train, watching the tracks below whiz by, is something Indians connect to."
What Neha wants to convey through her book is that we must all collectively stop trying to shame children when it comes to their need to use the toilet outside. "I want children to find a voice, a vocabulary to express their needs and I hope that in Rahi they will find an ally who is just like them and can inspire them to be upfront and unabashed about their toilet needs," says Neha, adding that, "the book is a reminder for grown-ups to start respecting children's basic needs and not shame them into submission."
You can buy the book at https://amzn.to/2GR8EKR