Humour/Jossie’s Vesthi

Our school took us on a field trip to Kolli Malai when we were in class nine. This region is one of the few left in Tamil Nadu where tribals still live without tampering from the outside world. So that we did not leave traces of urban life on this landscape our teachers decided that we must not take chemical soaps, plastic material, and ahem…toilet paper, among several other things. Now the only source of water was a river. And since we did not have plastic mugs to carry water,we had to use leaves,to clean up,after relieving ourselves . To say that this was awkward does not manage to convey the sheer horror of the situation. Neccesity being the mother of invention, I got innovative in this desperation. After the first relieving itself I decided leaves weren’t my cup of tea…well, mug of water! I discovered to my delight that our classmate Jossie(Joseph),had a vesthi(dhothi)tucked in with his luggage for the trip. I told him that since he was not using it, I would, and borrowed it from him. Now I had not told him in what way I would use his vesthi. For the rest of the trip I decided that my marked territory for crapping would be as far away from Jossie's as possible. As the trip was nearing its end, Jossie decided to relieve himself dangerously close to my territory. I had just finished the honours, when he caught sight of his beloved veshti, on a branch. He had been wondering why I had not worn it after borrowing it from him. After glimpsing at his veshti it all fitted in. I had been using his veshti as a toilet paper. His face betrayed a look of unsullied disgust, which soon turned into uncontrollable laughter. And oh I almost forgot to mention-cotton vesthi’s are biodegradable!!!